{"id":10,"date":"2008-06-16T11:13:09","date_gmt":"2008-06-16T16:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/china\/?p=10"},"modified":"2008-08-31T15:16:37","modified_gmt":"2008-08-31T20:16:37","slug":"the-one-child-policy-and-social-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/china\/2008\/06\/16\/the-one-child-policy-and-social-change\/","title":{"rendered":"The One-Child Policy and Social Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

See more of my photos of children and families in China on my flickr page<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

I went on this trip to learn first-hand about China, as much as could be learned in sponsored tour of 10 days! <\/span>I learned an incredible amount, especially by observing life as best I could in Beijing, Xi\u2019an, Hangzhou, and Shanghai, and talking to our tour guides, other people I met who spoke English, and the faculty and students at Peking and Fudan Universities. <\/span>I\u2019ve decided to narrow my blog entries to specific thoughts on specific issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>One of the things that most impressed me was how the one-child policy combines with massive rural-urban migrations to create the potential for significant change in China. <\/span>The one-child policy is one of the first things that American friends and acquaintances brought up to me when I mentioned that I was going to China. <\/span>Most Americans view this policy with horror, and the large number of child deaths in the recent earthquake only reinforces the antipathy. <\/span>\u201cOh my, their only child died, and they can\u2019t have another. <\/span>How tragic!\u201d <\/span>Of course, I agree about the tragedy, but those of us aware of the massive problems of feeding, housing, and employing the growing Chinese population recognize that something had to be done, and, as our own politicians like to say at election time, \u201cSomeone has to make the hard decisions.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So my sense from my visit is that the Chinese largely understand and accept this policy, and go about their business of living. <\/span>All over China, I saw mothers and a child, fathers and a child, couples with a child, grandparents with a child. <\/span>Single children were carried on bicycles and motorbikes in rush hour traffic every morning and evening. <\/span>Tourist sites were overwhelmed with families with one child. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The result of all this, in the words of one of the sociologists we met at Peking University, is the \u201c1980s generation.\u201d <\/span>Policy makers, scholars, and the general public seem to be concerned that the new generations are being spoiled! <\/span>Their wishes are being catered to; they are only interested in new technology; they are too individualistic; they don\u2019t understand what \u201cwe\u201d went through in the Cultural Revolution (a topic for another blog); they take their privileges for granted. <\/span>China Daily, the English language newspaper (or propaganda sheet!), reported on 6 June 2008 that the People\u2019s Congress in the province of Liaoning drafted legislation making it \u201can obligation for adult children to contact or visit their parents regularly\u2026.Government employees, who fail to do so, will face sanctions by their respective agencies.\u201d <\/span>The newspaper reported that they expect the draft to become law by the end of the year. <\/span>The fact that such a law is being considered, mentioned in an English language periodical, and is expected to be passed, shows the depth of concern.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course some of these sentiments are quite common when families are caught up in social change. <\/span>Similar reactions are often expressed within immigrant families in America and worldwide. <\/span>The notion that the young don\u2019t understand what the old went through, or what elders sacrificed, is a common theme in ethnic literature and scholarship (Japanese-American, African-American, Hispanic-American, white-ethnic-American, etc). <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>What is different about China, however, is that many seem to fear that the centuries-old, collectively focused, Chinese culture is at risk. <\/span>It\u2019s almost as if they are asking, \u201cHow will the revolution be continued, when we are raising little Westerners?\u201d <\/span>I, of course, don\u2019t have an answer to this question, but it may create the conditions for cultural change beyond the grasp of the planned social and economic changes that Chinese leaders are presenting. <\/span>The new generations are privileged beyond the dreams of their parents, and with affluence comes cultural change. <\/span>I don\u2019t see how the clock can be turned back.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Rural-urban migration issues in China illuminate a different facet of these issues, and this migration is vast. <\/span>For example, we were told that Shanghai now has 19 million people, and that over 5 million are migrant workers. <\/span>In China, you are \u201cregistered\u201d in the province of your birth. <\/span>Moving is easier now than historically; one can move in search of employment and, if successful, one\u2019s employer helps with a residency visa in the new province that might last for 1 or 3 years. After that temporary period, a permanent visa can be obtained if one has skills needed in the new province. <\/span>As in most migration streams, these tend to follow kinship linkages. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Nevertheless, migrant workers are presenting significant challenges for the new urban economies. <\/span>It is startling to me that every student who spoke to us at Fudan University was interested in studying some aspect of the generational effects of this migration. <\/span>Some married couples migrate to the urban areas, but leave their children in the provinces with their grandparents. <\/span>Others couples migrate with their children. <\/span>In the former case, parents look forward to the time that the family can get back together, after the children have finished college and joined them<\/em>. <\/span>In the latter case, the Chinese students were reporting that they never see their parents, since both are working all the time, and actually feel closer to their grandparents back in the rural provinces. <\/span>Without the attention of their parents, many young people are getting involved with various delinquencies, such as drugs, alcohol, sex, and crime. <\/span>The generation gap is thus exacerbated. <\/span>To make matters worse, public education is funded at the province level, and municipalities like Shanghai are reluctant to provide education through high school for the children of migrants. <\/span>These children, therefore, will have to return to the provinces for high school education, or drop out and enter the shadowy world of the informal economy. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, these generational migration problems would be occurring regardless of the one-child policy. <\/span>But that policy highlights significant contradictory results in today\u2019s China. <\/span>Children born to urban families are \u201cbeing spoiled.\u201d Children born to migrant workers, on the other hand, are facing the difficult situation of being cast into the urban world with fewer controls on their behavior, and an uncertain sense of belongingness. <\/span>Both cases are creating a cultural change large enough for attempts to legislate morality (to use an American political phrase), and will likely lead to greater individualism in a society that has long prided itself on a collective mentality.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

See more of my photos of children and families in China on my flickr page. I went on this trip to learn first-hand about China, as much as could be learned in sponsored tour of 10 days! I learned an incredible amount, especially by observing life as best I could in Beijing, Xi\u2019an, Hangzhou, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/china\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/china\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/china\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/china\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/china\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/china\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/china\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions\/34"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/china\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/china\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/china\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}