An interesting article appeared in the New York Times some months back, that talked about China's one child policy (OCP) which began in 1979 as a government tool to prevent starvation and other excess population induced national calamities. At the time, China was arguably one of the world's poorest and most backward nations that, despite being a nuclear power, worried that too many people would create social conditions that would eventually threaten the state. Well, the plan worked. By limiting the total number of births (by some estimates, China prevented more than the equivalent of the population the size of Europe from being born), China was able to prevent wholesale starvation and excessive joblessness. Of course, opening the country to foreign trade was by far the greater positive impact. But nonetheless, the OCP did lean the population pressures towards the right direction and, in combination with open trade, helped to facilitate a national transformation in just over a single generation. That's not to say that starvation and joblessness didn't exist in China then and even today, but the impact of which was certainly lessened by an estimated 300 million mouths that were never allowed into the equation. Thus, in terms of what the OCP intended, it was hugely successful. One of the lesser appreciated facts of this policy though, is the demise of the extended family in China as a result. Chinese social traditions had always mandated that each familial relation be specifically titled according to their position in the family. Young foreign Chinese (born into the diaspora) may not be fully aware of the richness of this tradition, as they simply address all non immediate familial relations as a generic Uncle, Auntie, or Cousin. However, under the one child policy, even these titles would no longer be necessary in a society where each only has one offspring. That is, Chinese would no longer have the pleasure of having large extended familial relations, and the titles of Uncle, Auntie, Cousin, or even brother or sister, would be unnecessary, as it has become rare for anyone in China to ever have any of these relations. While I agree that the One Child Policy was dramatically successful in population reduction for a period when China was economically poor, I'm not convinced that such a policy needs to be continued today, when China is arguably one of the world's richest nations. Family life, especially those by sibling extension, had been an essential mortar that had kept, molded and burnished Chinese character to be what it is today. That it is important to us Chinese is evident in the above mentioned fact that every member is recognized by title according to their degree of relationship to us as individuals. By removing away this ingredient of Chinese socialization, the PRC government has wholly changed the character of China's Chinese. China may not have starved to death from overpopulation, but it has also undergone a quiet and subtle transformation into a nation of unrelated strangers. Moreover, the OCP has already skewed the ratio of male to female births; statistically, approximately one third of all single Chinese men today, will never find a native Chinese wife. I think it is time for the PRC to seriously reevaluate what it's goals are vis a vis the OCP, as the social impact of it today, is not as simplistic as seen from that of a 31 year old perspective.
I never stopped to think about that..... it's somewhat interesting to still hear older people who have come over from china having large families....
China definitely have to decrease its population. But i think having 1 child is alittle too little. Maybe 2 would the rite amount. I meant, there are more people dying than being born.
