One Child: The Story of China's Most Radical Experiment
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"When Communist Party leaders adopted the one-child policy in 1980, they hoped curbing birth-rates would help lift China's poorest and increase the country's global stature. But at what cost? Now, as China closes the book on the policy after more than three decades, it faces a population grown too old and too male, with a vastly diminished supply of young workers. Mei Fong has spent years documenting the policy's repercussions on every sector of Chinese society. In One Child, she explores its true human impact, traveling across China to meet the people who live with its consequences. Their stories reveal a dystopian reality: unauthorized second children ignored by the state, only-children supporting aging parents and grandparents on their own, villages teeming with ineligible bachelors, and an ungoverned adoption market stretching across the globe. Fong tackles questions that have major implications for China's future: whether its 'Little Emperor' cohort will make for an entitled or risk-averse generation; how China will manage to support itself when one in every four people is over sixty-five years old; and above all, how much the one-child policy may end up hindering China's growth. Weaving in Fong's reflections on striving to become a mother herself, One Child offers a nuanced and candid report from the extremes of family planning."--
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Intriguing portrait of one of the biggest family and nation-controlling experiments out there, the cruel ways it was implemented and a somber look at its many unintended consequences. Fong looks at the effects of the policy from multiple fascinating angles.
Guided by the threat of overpopulation and the drive for economic progress, from 1979 to 2015 China's One Child Policy allowed the majority of its citizens to only have 1 offspring. Paired with China's patriarchy and low standing of women, this has now led to a population with a high gender imbalance. The gender ratio is so tipped towards an abundance of men, that Chinese parents pay doweries to find brides for their sons. Populations with more men than women are also said to be highly aggressive, and have historically often led to wars.
Low birth rates and advanced healthcare lead to a Chinese population where soon 1 out of 3 people will be over 60. In the land where filial piety still rules, the single child of single-child parents now find themselves sole care-taker of 2 ageing parents and 4 grandparents. As the only offspring of a family, children are simultaneoulsy coddled (the “little emperor” phenomenon, producing solipsistic low-risk takers) and also put under enormous pressure (the need to succeed, to support all elderly family members).
Once China realised these trends and tried to reverse course by adapting the policy to allow every family 2 children (nuclear families only!) it was too late. Only a small portion of families are currently opting for second children, due to economic considerations.
