In September 1980, the Chinese government unveiled a new plan to curb the country’s reproductive habits – by issuing the one-child policy.
Ordering families to only have one kid, following debate with military scientists, was considered a radical and controversial experiment to reduce the country’s population and therefore, limit poverty and boost the economy.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mei Fong, who was born in Malaysia, gives the issue a human angle as she focuses on the real-life impact of the policy and its repercussions more than three decades on.
With a massive ageing population and a lack of a younger workforce, there are also “bachelor villages” and runaway brides who take advantage of the situation by marrying the men so they can take the dowry before disappearing, parents who have lost their only child in natural disasters as well as authority figures who carried out late-term abortions and penalised parents who dared defy the policy.
Children are a personal matter for Fong, a mother-of-twins, who now lives in the US, but suffered a miscarriage and underwent IVF during her time in China, and she draws upon her experiences as she refers to other parents.
An interesting and intriguing read.
Published by OneWorld Publications