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The language instructor’s voice calmly came to me through my MP3 headphones.
“Please translate: Ni Jali Yo Jige Shou Har?”
“How many children are there in your family?” I responded aloud.
I was suddenly struck by an anomaly. The Mandarin language has separate words referring to older and younger siblings. It’s very precise that way. Which is rather interesting because, since 1979, it has been virtually illegal for Chinese citizens to have more than one child.
Although not new to me, Penelope was horrified when she found this out from a young Chinese woman we met. Like us humans, female koalas have one offspring at a time. Although I have avoided the topic with her, my impression is that she has aspirations in this regard. P fell into the woman’s arms, and I excused myself to give them a moment of privacy.
Communist China instituted its One Child Policy due to the country’s burgeoning population. Sounds intense. And in truth, it is.
The logic is sound: with a large populace living in poverty, standards of living will increase when there are less family dependents.
But the policy entails a myriad of problems.
Firstly, you’d think having kids is a human right, not a matter for government intrusion. After all, along with food and shelter, reproduction is a basic human need.
Chinese culture has a long tradition of extended families. Today, the burden of caring for the elder generation is falling on individuals instead of being shared between siblings. The policy reduces the number of dependents relying on the parents, but it increases the burden of dependency on children.
For this and other reasons, we were told, Chinese parents generally prefer that their one allotted child be male. Stories abound of girls being "disposed of" after birth. Many female births, apparently, are simply not registered with the authorities. I have even heard stories of factories and sweatshops in the country's south where "invisible" women work under awful conditions, because these are the only places they can find employment.
The preference for sons has ostensibly resulted in a lack of potential wives (western women – this could be your chance!). I discussed this over a game of pool with some Chinese backpackers staying at my hostel. They were very congenial and spoke quite good English. During the game some pretty, young women – all hotel staff - came to flirt. They focussed on the westerners. I asked one of my pool partners if he resented it. His face turned serious. "Well, what do you expect. It's not easy for us. There is big competition here for Chinese girls. It's not nice for us to see foreign men coming in and marrying them. It puts more pressure on us". There was a certain despair in his voice and it disturbed me. Then again, in a country of more than 1,300,000,000 people, you would think that it’s still a pretty big market out there.
There are some exceptions to the One Child Policy. For instance, two single children who marry can have two children of their own. In rural areas, enforcement seems to be more lax.
Today, in China's new capitalist economy, having more than one child is less frowned upon, but it comes at a price: A fixed financial penalty can be paid to register each child above the permitted quota. P and I were told by the Chinese wife of a Jewish man we met that fertility treatment has become popular because twins are not subject to a fine.
The State – as an institution - governs relations between people in society. To what extent can it then intrude on people’s private lives? This is clearly an existential question.
How fickle is fate that I was born elsewhere, and that I live in a country that protects something that China prohibits.
Scary.
“Please translate: Ni Jali Yo Jige Shou Har?”
“How many children are there in your family?” I responded aloud.
I was suddenly struck by an anomaly. The Mandarin language has separate words referring to older and younger siblings. It’s very precise that way. Which is rather interesting because, since 1979, it has been virtually illegal for Chinese citizens to have more than one child.
Although not new to me, Penelope was horrified when she found this out from a young Chinese woman we met. Like us humans, female koalas have one offspring at a time. Although I have avoided the topic with her, my impression is that she has aspirations in this regard. P fell into the woman’s arms, and I excused myself to give them a moment of privacy.
Communist China instituted its One Child Policy due to the country’s burgeoning population. Sounds intense. And in truth, it is.
The logic is sound: with a large populace living in poverty, standards of living will increase when there are less family dependents.
But the policy entails a myriad of problems.
Firstly, you’d think having kids is a human right, not a matter for government intrusion. After all, along with food and shelter, reproduction is a basic human need.
Chinese culture has a long tradition of extended families. Today, the burden of caring for the elder generation is falling on individuals instead of being shared between siblings. The policy reduces the number of dependents relying on the parents, but it increases the burden of dependency on children.
For this and other reasons, we were told, Chinese parents generally prefer that their one allotted child be male. Stories abound of girls being "disposed of" after birth. Many female births, apparently, are simply not registered with the authorities. I have even heard stories of factories and sweatshops in the country's south where "invisible" women work under awful conditions, because these are the only places they can find employment.
The preference for sons has ostensibly resulted in a lack of potential wives (western women – this could be your chance!). I discussed this over a game of pool with some Chinese backpackers staying at my hostel. They were very congenial and spoke quite good English. During the game some pretty, young women – all hotel staff - came to flirt. They focussed on the westerners. I asked one of my pool partners if he resented it. His face turned serious. "Well, what do you expect. It's not easy for us. There is big competition here for Chinese girls. It's not nice for us to see foreign men coming in and marrying them. It puts more pressure on us". There was a certain despair in his voice and it disturbed me. Then again, in a country of more than 1,300,000,000 people, you would think that it’s still a pretty big market out there.
There are some exceptions to the One Child Policy. For instance, two single children who marry can have two children of their own. In rural areas, enforcement seems to be more lax.
Today, in China's new capitalist economy, having more than one child is less frowned upon, but it comes at a price: A fixed financial penalty can be paid to register each child above the permitted quota. P and I were told by the Chinese wife of a Jewish man we met that fertility treatment has become popular because twins are not subject to a fine.
The State – as an institution - governs relations between people in society. To what extent can it then intrude on people’s private lives? This is clearly an existential question.
How fickle is fate that I was born elsewhere, and that I live in a country that protects something that China prohibits.
Scary.
2 comments:
Was that one trillion, 300 billion? Did I read that correctly?
The official figure is 1.3 billion. I haven't worked out if that refers to UK billions (a million million) or US billions (a thousand million).
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