Why does China have so many great female players?

As of now 6 of the 19 highest-rated female players in the world are Chinese, including womens' #1 Hou Yifan, #2 (at least for now) Ju Wenjun, and the possible next Womens' Champion Tan Zhongyi (yes, she is a huge underdog, but if 2016 has taught us one thing, it's that underdogs shouldn't be counted out). Historically, in addition to Hou, 3 other Chinese women have won the championship title, namely Xie Jun (twice), Zhu Chen and Xu Yuhua (and yes, Judit Polgar didn't play in those championships, but a lot of other great female players did). By contrast, while China's top male players today are certainly no pushovers, none of them are consistently ranked in the top 10, and historically no Chinese player has come close to winning the WCC. Hence the question: why are there so many great Chinese female players, and why the gender disparity?

Same reason why there are many more great Chinese female athletes than Chinese male athletes.

Yes, I've noticed that phenomenon too. So what exactly is that reason?

The same reason why China, the #1 populated country in the world, has the most females, period (I believe so, at least...).

Of course, it's also due to the fact that China is a first-world nation, on par with the US and Russia and other countries with many talented players. I don't think China's women GMs are that much more in number/strength than those of the US. 

But China also has the most males, yet they are not doing nearly as well in top-level chess as their female counterparts, relatively speaking.

Are the Chinese females actually better than the Chinese males, or is that only a comparison within gender? (Rhetorical)

Gender disparity? You will still see people like ding Liren and Wei yi (who are not in the top ten in the world) destroying the female world champ, hou yifan.

All that said, gender discussions in chess are a cess pit of diarrhea. So I'll refrain from commenting further than : I accept that numbers (larger male attendance) contribute to gender inequality more than anything (biological features).

I'm not sure why females in China hold a greater spot than females from other countries. It probably (obviously) has more to do with socio-economic reasons than anything else (genetics). - Such as the one-child policy that was in place in China for a while. Any girls that weren't rejected were probably subjected to intensely high standards in order to be accepted.

At the highest level Chinese women are doing far better than women in the US. The highest-rated female American player is Zatonskih, who is ranked #27 in the world. China, as I noted in my original post, has 6 players in the top 19.

http://2700chess.com/women?per-page=50

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/there-are-more-boys-than-girls/

I'm pretty sure Cherub is saying that there are more females in China than there are females in any other country, not that there are more females than males in China.

@ 1818: When you speak of "intensely high standards," are you talking about the educational system (which is the first thing that came to mind for me), or are you talking about something else?

(1) That's interesting. I can't imagine that China would have a more aggressive women-in-chess agenda the US, considering the respective cultures nowadays. They obviously have a larger pool of talent to choose from though. 

(2) And so what? Just because there are more boys than girls in China doesn't mean that China isn't the country with the most females. Only India could compete, and I guarantee India does not have more women than China

Macer, I'm talking mostly about standards coming from parents. Pressure to do well in anything at all just to please ones family... Could be education but really it could be any activity. Sports or academics.

I can't speak for all Chinese people, I won't try to. But all the Chinese friends I've ever had have told me (complained) about having parents that subjected them to way higher demands/standards than mine(typical white American middle class parents). Anecdotal evidence, but still potentially valid.

China has intensive training in every field.  Childern are given aptitude tests when they are young and are given the choice of which field to study for their carreer.  Since their livelyhood depends upon their choice, boys are less likely to choose a carreer which does not have a good return on investment.

To requote Kasparov, "They are like trained dogs." and WIM Erika Sziva, "... lke a parrot."

Yes, we know it, the Chinese are shamelessly doing elo-manipulation, a total fraud, it's fake news all the way, really they are rated 1000 points less but because of elo-manipulation, they get off at 2600 and everybody believes this alternative news that they are so strong, really they're not, we know that

I used to be mad at my parents why they didn't send me to gymnastics school in China to be intensively trained? I had natural gymnastics talents.

But now I'm guessing you're glad that they didn't?

So if China's dominance in womens' chess is due in large part to the female population in China (which I'm neither confirming nor denying), then that would mean that rather than China's females overperforming, China's males are actually underperforming. I'm not sure whether that's true or not; I'm just following the line of logic.

I wish my parents pushed me harder but in an actually productive way and not... Well we don't need to go into details lol :-) :-(

Also chinese men are strong.Look at Sharjah tournament.2 chinese players men are playing to qualify to candidate tournament.

there are a lot of people in China. about half men and half women, the men use cologne so the women are not as discouraged from learning the game.

the so-called "gender disparity" is due to so FEW non-Chinese women learning the game due to all the sexism.