China’s One-Child Policy

On October 28, 2015, the Chinese government ended its one-child policy, allowing families to have two children.  The articles below discuss the impact two writers feel the policy had on the lives of girls in China while the one-child policy was in effect.  Two short articles from the NY Times newspaper that follow question whether the change in policy will be the important factor in increasing China’s population, or whether other factors, such as greater access to education and employment opportunities for women, will be more significant.

This week’s assignment focuses on the impact of China’s one-child policy. Look at Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng’s China by Susan Greenhalgh. Historians of China now see evidence that population growth was naturally declining before the policy was promulgated, and the strict enforcement of measures to hasten that decline has had unexpected consequences. Most historians point to the unbalanced gender ratio which has resulted in many more men than women now of marriageable age. But other researchers, such as one you will read in this assignment, offer a different perspective. They look at the impact the law has had on the status of girls and women.

As you read, note how each author explains the changes that are happening for young women in urban and rural China. What do they attribute those changes to?

Reading.
– Rana Mitter, Modern China: A Very Short Introduction, Chapter 6 and 7
– China’s One-Child Policy and the Empowerment of Urban Daughters Vanessa L. Fong American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 104, No. 4 (Dec., 2002), pp. 1098-1109
– Girl Power: Young Women and the Waning of Patriarchy in Rural North China,” Yunxiang Yan, Ethnology, Vol. 45, No. 2, Spring 2006, pp. 105-123.
– China Seeks More Births, Higher Limit May Not Be the AnswerChina’s Enlightenment Moment
– China’s Enlightenment Moment

Questions.
1.  How do Vanessa L. Fong and Yunxiang Yan agree and disagree with each other in their analysis of the changes that have and are occurring in the lives of young girls and women in urban and rural China?

2.  Through your own readings in this course, you now know quite a bit about women’s lives in 20th century China.  Do you think the two authors, Vanessa L. Fong and Yunxiang Yan, failed to consider a dimension(s) of what impacts women’s status in drawing their conclusions?  If so, what would that be?  In other words, what have the authors left out of their considerations?  Do you think the writers of the NY Times articles address those missing factors?