April 29, 2007
Confucius says, “Nowadays for a man to be filial means no more than that he is able to provide his parents with food. Even hounds and horses are, in some way, provided with food. If a man shows no reverence, where is the difference?” Filial piety has long been a standard tradition and custom amongst the Chinese. Embedded in their minds by ancient Chinese philosophers, it is strictly understood that children must care for their elders or parents with unconditional love and respect. Unlike the American tendency for parents to live separately when the child has grown into adults, Chinese families believe in the idea of having three generations under one roof: the grandparents, the parents and the children.
Ever since I was young, I have been raised by my parents as well as my grandparents. Although my mother immigrated to the United States, she applied for a visa for her parents to reside here. Almost every morning as I left for school, I bade goodbye to my grandmother while she was participating in her daily routine of the Tai Chi martial art. I rode in the backseat as my father drove his mother-in-law to the local Chinese herbalist almost every week to examine her health. When my grandmother occasionally heads back to China, she returns to the home of her eldest son. My mother constantly reminds me of my filial duty, “You can’t even cook or peel an apple with a knife! How do you expect to feed or care for me when I’m old? When I was your age, I was already preparing all the meals in my household!”
This filial duty that Chinese families so earnestly believe in was reflected in China’s population. My grandmother tells me, “There was an expression: The more children, the greater your fortune.” With the teaching of Chinese philosophers such as Confucius, the population of China thrived on the birth of children. However, this old Chinese way of thought soon clashed with Communist China’s hopes to develop a prosperous, wealthy, economically advanced nation.
China, encompassing one-fifth of the world’s population with over 1.3 billion, has wrestled with its own traditional past in an attempt to control the rapidly, increasing population. As the Chinese government constantly reminds its people, the state is unable to feed, shelter and support such an overwhelming population. The massive abundance of people is a major cause of the malnourished, starving, and poverty-stricken populous of China. In addition, not only is the state unable to support the people, but in turn, the people are unable to contribute to the prosperity of the state. In fact, the overcrowded population became a weight that dragged down the country’s potential for success.
At the beginning of the Communist reign in 1949 established by Mao Zedong, a large population was commended and encouraged. As Mao states, “It is a very good thing that China has a big population. Even if China’s population multiplies many times, she is fully capable of finding a solution; the solution is production…Under the leadership of the Communist Party, as long as there are people, every kind of miracle can be performed” (Aird 20). However, he soon reinstated his claim when officials reported multiple food shortages and famines erupting across the country and in 1956, he instructed that the Ministry of Public Health begin promoting birth control policies (Aird, 21). This was the beginning of a series of campaigns China launched to implement its birth control restriction.
At first, the policies were not as strictly enforced and merely encouraged. As the population began to rapidly rise, the state began to realize that its tactics were not strong enough. Soon after, the Second Campaign began. During this time, the a separate government branch called the National Family Planning Committee was established and stricter policies were enforced; Only a maximum of two children was allowed per family with two or three years between them and a third child was only considered on extreme conditions. At the same time, intrauterine devices (IUD) and safer abortion techniques were adopted. Intrauterine devices are metal contraptions inserted into the uterus to prevent pregnancy. Both of these methods helped the government promote the limitation of births in China.
In 1969, the Third Campaign was launched after Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. It was then that the two children per family limit was imposed and provincial quotas were established. Each province and its local authorities must abide by these quotas while applying the birth rate policies. If they reached the quotas, then that province was considered progressive and was rewarded. Otherwise, the area was criticized and received no benefits from the government (Aird 26-28). The slogan at the time was “later, longer, fewer”; they promoted later marriages, longer spacing and fewer children (Kane 169). In 1979, when statistics indicated that the population had increased almost 330 million in the past twenty years and showed no signs of slowing, the Chinese government launched the One-Child Policy (Kane 74, 86) which has continued to this day.
The One-Child Policy is a law enforced by the State Family Planning Bureau that regulates family sizes, late marriage, child-bearing and the spacing of children (Hesketh, Lu, Xing). In the documentary, Woman of the Yellow Earth, family planning officials are depicted issuing marriage certificates to Li Fei and Ma Ling, establishing their estimated date of their first child’s birth, as well as strictly enforcing the rural policies on family size. Despite its name, it does not entirely enforce one-child per family in every area of China. It is in fact, intricately complicated with distinct laws and quotas for each province written according to the demographics. In the more densely populated cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, only one child is allowed per family. If the family has more than one child, the family will be fined an incredible sum of money oftentimes as large as fifty percent or more of their income.
“I had a friend of mine; his brother was fined more than a million Yuan (equivalent to an estimated 18,000 USD) because his wife had a second daughter. In some other areas, you can be jailed. Otherwise you will just be fined very heavily. If you can’t pay, they will take away your property or home,” my father recounts.
If the family refuses to pay these fines, then the government will not provide the children with benefits of the state and the second child will not receive recognition as a citizen of the People’s Republic of China. If the family is unable to pay the fine, then the government will take a piece of property as compensation. There are only four exceptions to the one-child policy:
1) In the case of a second marriage, if either partner has not had a child.
2) If the child is born severely deformed or disabled to the point where life expectancy is shortened.
3) If the father is employed in dangerous premises such as mining.
4) If both parents are only children (Zhu).
Thankfully, twins, triplets, quadruplets and such are not penalized and are given the same benefits as only children.
Regardless of the many policies implemented amongst the urban dwellers, many people living in the city find that having only one child is preferable. Living expenses and space is quite sparse and the enrollment in school is expensive thus parents feel less of a strain and financial burden with a single child to support.
Despite 70% of China’s population living in the rural areas, the more widespread population distribution and a necessary demand for labor allow a limit of two children per family. The rules are also more flexible than the city. If the first child born is female, then the couple is allowed another birth (Zhu). This is mainly decided on the fact that males are stronger than females and thus can provide more of a labor force than females. In this case, economic and societal factors are taken into account and given some relaxation in the strict policy.
In Women of the Yellow Earth, the mother Bai had given birth to a third child and the local authorities had begun to enforce the policies on her through fines, urges to sterilize and seizure of property. She explains,
“It won’t be easy to get [my third child] a resident permit. Unless she’s registered we won’t be given land. I’ll have be sterilized in any case. When [the family planning officials] come, you have to get it done. If you refuse, they ask for money. Once you get sterilized you get a refund. Otherwise, that’s the end of your money. If you keep refusing they demand more money. If you have no money they argue. They take the furniture. They use every method they know.”
The grandfather boldly states, “In a family of five, you must hold the spoon tight and you must plough twice as hard.” All actions are taken to prevent the family from having a third child. Eventually, Bai’s family is threatened. She gives up the baby for adoption and undergoes a rather informal surgery for sterilization. In this documentary filmed in 1995, the enforcement of the two children policy in rural areas is as strong as it has always been since the 1980s.
Various arguments from international authorities claimed that China had used coercive, persuasive and inhumane methods to enforce their laws. However, there had been a letter from the State Planning Committee in 1980 forbidding the use of coercion to implement the policies. Despite the warnings, many local authorities, or cadres, rigorously enforced the commandments of the One-Child Policy through methods on the brim of coercion. At the peak of Chinese enforcement of the policy in 1983, in fear of another baby boom, a program began stating that it would “require sterilization of one partner of every couple that had two or more children and the prompt abortion of all unauthorized pregnancies and in addition, woman of childbearing age with one-child must be fitted with IUDs” (Aird 32). As a result of the program, 20.3% of urban woman underwent sterilization and 39% received IUDs. In comparison, 25% of rural woman were sterilized and 50% received IUDs (Kane 180).
A surgeon in the documentary retells her story, “We do a lot of sterilizations, I.U.D insertions and abortions. Between 1989 and 1992, we did sterilizations in large batches. We went down to the villages. We’d do 30 to 40 a day.” Many of these women did not want to receive these operations and this caused much controversy over the morality and practicality of the operations.
However, another surgeon explains, “People used to fear this operation. Most have it willingly, some have it unwillingly. They have to have it because of policy. Chinese believe used to believe that more children meant greater prosperity, just like Chairman Mao said,” She laughs, “But now that has changed.” Both the surgeon and the patient have different perspectives on the issue. Whereas the patient fears the sterilization and family planning officials, the surgeon emphasizes with the Chinese government, justifying their actions.
Another reason for authorities to accuse the Chinese government of coercion is the incentive they planted in the people’s minds. Each province was granted promotions, praise and rewards if they abided by the family-planning rules and fulfilled quotas. In addition, the companies within the district are also evaluated with family-planning policies in mind. In the book, A Mother’s Ordeal, by Steven W. Mosher, Chi An, a former family-planning official, moved to America with her husband on a temporary basis and accidentally becomes pregnant with a second child. Chinese authorities and her official begin to contact her by mail warning her of the persecution that would ensue if she returned to China:
“Right now the Liaoning Truck Factory is working on a major, government-sponsored expansion. We have successfully passed all the necessary evaluations and reviews. But if our birth control program allows even a single second birth, our factory will not be permitted to advance. All of the strenuous efforts of our fifteen thousand employees towards this goal will have been in vain. Moreover, our whole factory will be disqualified from any production contests, and the bonuses and benefits of all employees will be negatively affected. From the factory director, to the department heads to the cadres in charge of the birth planning program, we will all be punished” (308).
The Chinese government passed strict regulations and laws, supporting those who obeyed and punishing those who were unable to abide by the restrictions with financial burdens.
The creation of the One-Child Policy stirred a panic amongst many couples. Chinese families have often celebrated in the birth of sons and silently cursed the birth of daughters. One woman’s experience is recounted,
“… she told Mrs. Hsu what had happened to her baby daughters: the first was alive, and also the third; but the second had been strangled at birth by the husband and also the fifth and sixth; the seventh had been born in a bad year, a year of famine when her belly stuck to her skin at her spine, and the husband had smashed her skull in with his axe; at the eighth female child the husband had been so angry that he had hurled it against a wall; the ninth was a year old and had been given away to a neighbor and now here was something in her belly… oh let it be a son, a male child” (Kane 154).
Unlike sons, daughters are married into their husband’s family unable to carry on the family name. In addition, at the time, daughters were unable to support their families after being married into another one. It was believed that sons brought more prosperity to the family than a daughter. Today, the son-daughter debate exists more than ever, especially in the rural areas of China where a son would be more valuable than a daughter. In the urban areas, sex selective abortions occurred. As a result of this preference, infanticide, or the murder of infants, began to emerge from its past.
In their wish to have a healthy child or son, families began to abandon female children. Unfortunately, many of these unwanted female infants are found on doorsteps or streets and end up in adoption agencies and welfare institutes. Fortunately, there exist many American couples willing and eager to adopt Chinese infants. In fact, there are many international adoption agencies that help these abandoned babies find loving families.
When I was 10, my family and I went to China to visit relatives. I remembered staring across the street from the White Swan Hotel to see a large tourist group of white Americans all clutching diaper bags and pushing Asian babies in carriages while a Chinese lady at the head of the group pointed and demonstrated. Later on in life, I stumbled across a website full of personal stories and accounts of American woman who had adopted babies from the Guangdong province. Surprisingly, many of the blogs noted that they resided in the White Swan Hotel during their stay and included many pictures of their adopted babies in the hotel itself.
So many Americans have shown an interest in adopting Asian babies that today there have been reports of infants being kidnapped from their families to be sold to adoption agencies. Poverty-stricken, rural families also see baby-trafficking as a solution to their financial problems and may even sell their children if they are unable to support them.
During the same trip in China, I remember my mother telling me to carefully look after my sister because she could be abducted. At the time, I questioned the seriousness of her warning. My father recounts his own personal encounter with this situation, “I had six brothers and sisters. When I was younger, we were incredibly poor. I was the youngest sibling and someone offered to buy me from my mother. If they had sold me, it would ease the financial situation. However, at the time, my mother loved me too much because I was a cute kid and she declined in the end. I think… if I had been a daughter instead of a son, I would definitely have been sold off.”
In an effort to prevent this problem in China, in 2002, the government announced the Law on Population and Family Planning, which is a series of laws which include: banning the discrimination of female infants and their mothers, efforts to improve woman’s rights in all aspects as well as efforts to promote sex education and research on new family planning methods. In addition to these, the law also enacted the banning of ultrasounds for sex determination and issued propaganda stating that girls are good. This new effort from the Chinese government seeks to ease the son-daughter issue.
A more personal issue is that of the psychological effects the One-Child Policy instills in parental minds. Being allowed only one child for the remainder of their lives, the parents become prone to cherishing as well as spoiling the child rotten. ADD. On the other hand, some parents have the opposite reaction: pressuring their only child to achieve success in all aspects. Education has become a high priority in many Chinese families as it is costly as well as competitive. Every family wishes their child to succeed in academics in order to provide promising comfort and stability in the future. This creates a large load of pressure upon the child.
My grandmother recently told me of the pressure her grandson in China has to endure once he received admission to a prestigious high school. “He told me over the phone, ‘Grandma, I only get 5 hours of sleep a day. When I come back from school at 5 pm, I have to help with the preparation of dinner, hang the laundry out, and then after dinner, I still have to wash dishes because Grandpa cooked the food! And then after that, I still have hours of homework to do…’” Along with the filial duties required of him there was also strenuous pressure to do well in his top-notch school as well. The One-Child Policy has also created what is known today as the One-Two-Four problem. If all the families are only allowed to have one child, that one child in the future will have to care for two parents as well as four grandparents creating a large burden.
With the Chinese government’s harsh, strict methods in enforcing its laws, change in the last 25 years since the emergence of the One-Child Policy is noticeable preventing almost 250 to 300 million births. The total fertility rate, which is defined as the mean number of children born per woman, decreased from 2.9 in 1979 to 1.7 in 2004. Currently, although China has no intentions of lifting the policy, they do have plans to relax it. Some future plans include allowing a second childbirth after 5 years, eliminating local birth quotas that regulate the dates of childbirth and allowing couples to choose their own form of contraception (Hesketh, Lu, Xing).
Despite the former steel hands of authority, the Chinese government has attempted to alleviate the burden of the One-Child Policy by gradually releasing its chokehold on birth control. The One-Child Policy affects all generations, all parents, child and grandparents, government authorities and their citizens; however, if there is a compromise and compliance within the state, the Chinese goal for prosperity, wealth and success may just become attainable. As Confucius says, “It is difficult to be a ruler, and it is not easy to be a subject either. If the ruler understands the difficulty of being a ruler, then is this not almost a case of saying leading the state to prosperity?”
Aird, John S. Slaughter of the Innocents. Washington D.C.: The AEI P, 1990.
“China Turns One-Child Policy Into Law.” Center for Reproductive Rights. 27 Apr. 2007
Confucius. The Analects. Trans. D C. Lau. England: Penquin Books, 1979.
Hesketh, Therese, Li Lu, and Zhu W. Xing. The Effect of China’s One-Child Policy After 25 Years. Massachusetts Medical Society. The New England Journal of Medicine, 2005. 29 Apr. 2007
Kane, Penny. The Second Billion. Australia: Penquin Books, 1987.
Mosher, Steven W. A Mother’s Ordeal. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1993.
Stuy, Brian. “Research China: Finding Ads, Orphanage City DVDs, Photos and More Research by Brian Stuy.” Research-China. 14 Apr. 2007. 29 Apr. 2007
Women of the Yellow Earth. Dir. John Bulmer. Videocassette. BBC Television, 1995.
Zhu, W X. “The One Child Family Policy.” Health Unlimited (2003). 29 Apr. 2007
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