岳阳市社会福利院 Yueyang City Social Community 兹有我辖区一市民捡到 At the present, a citizen from this administrative region, has found 弃婴壹名 an abandoned baby 经我所 的查找 while searching for, 不知其生身父母下落 the whereabouts of its biological parents are unknown 为了保护儿童的合法权益 for the sake of protecting the childí s legitimate rights and interests 特送贵院收养 the child has been brought to our community to take care of.
THE LAND OF PROMISES 希望国
Youqine LefË vre
At the end of July 1994, six Belgian families went to China to adopt a girl. They did not know each other very well and they made a trip of more than fourteen days together accross the country. At that time, it was still quite new to adopt a Chinese child so they were among the first Belgian parents to adopt Chinese children. Six girls were adop≠ ted in total. They were aged between six months and three years old and were adopted at the same moment and at the same orphanage. I am one of them. My father came alone. Our parents left Brussels for Beijing. From there, they took another plane to go to Changsha, the capital of Hunan, our home province. Then, they traveled by bus to Yueyang City, where the orphanage was located. Throughout their stay, they were accompanied by a tour guide≠ interpreter named Me≠ lanie, who assisted them with all the administrative procedures. She was also responsible for showing them some tourist sites. This new experience led her to become attached to the families and the children.
At the end of October 2017, I went back to China for the very first time. I went with my father because it made sense to me. The trip lasted three weeks. We mainly visited the Hunan Province, where I come from. We stayed a few days in Yueyang, where we visited the orpha≠ nage where I would have lived for seven months. We traveled the surrounding countryside, went round the Dongting Lake and crossed fishing villages. We also stayed a few days in Zhangjiajie, still in the Hunan Province, less for the park that is there but rather to travel around small towns and isolated villages. Our tour guide, Simon, is from the region. He lives in a small village with his father who is a farmer. Simon returned to live with his father to help him. His mother works in a restaurant not far from Wulingyuan, a few hours from their village, and only comes back home two or three times a year. Our tour guide, understanding the stakes of our trip, told us that when his mother was pregnant with her second child (Simoní s younger brother), the family planning service knew it and local offi≠ cials came to their home to dissuade the mother from continuing the pregnancy. She fled to the mountains until her child was born. The local officials returned to their home to ask them to pay a fine as a punish≠ ment for the parents who violated the birth control policy by giving birth to an out≠ of≠ plan child. Because the parents were farmers, they did not have the necessary amount of money. However, they were able to pay this debt by paying with grains, rice and so on. For families who could not pay with money or with their harvest, the authorities destroyed their homes. Back in Belgium, I made research about the birth control policy in China, especially the one≠ child policy (1979 ≠ 2015) and its many consequences that still have repercussions today and will continue to exist in the future, until my second trip to China in March and April 2019. This time, I left for two months and I was alone. I stayed in several places: Beijing, Suzhou, in the Yunnan Province (mainly in the countryside) and in Nanjing. The subject of the birth control policy in China being very broad, I tried to have an overview. My own story is one of the many consequences among others of the one≠ child policy. This project is about the discovery of my country of origin and an attempt to understand what led to the abandonment and the interna≠ tional adoption of hundreds of thousands of Chinese girls.
The Yueyang Social Welfare Center. ë House of Hopeí . The orphanage where I would have lived for seven months.
The police station of the Sub≠ district of Wulipai, where I would have been dropped off by a resident.
Sub≠distr ict of Wulipai. The neighborhood where I would have been found.
Sub≠distr ict of Wulipai.
One of the ends of the Dongting Lake near the city of Yueyang. Each girl of our group of adop≠ ted girls thinks that we are probably born in a village in the countryside rather than in town.
ë If you obey the birth control regulations, you will be respected. If you desobey, there will be shame on you.í
Qian (b.1974)
Lucia (b.1976) and her son George
Qian (b.1974) I have a younger sister. At that time it was common to have several children. I met my husband through friends. I got married at the age of 24. Because of love but also because of my parents who urged me to get married as soon as possible. They put pressure on me to have a child. At 25, I became pregnant. In China, it is normal to get married and have children soon after. My husband and I did not know the sex of our child before the birth. It was forbidden to know it. It is still the case today. My son was born in 1998. After he was born, I had to go to the hospital five times a year to check that I was not pregnant. It was an obligation. Now women still have to go to the hospital several times a year to check they are not pregnant. There are no differences between raising a son or a daughter. It is the same thing. But my husband and I wanted a son. He is currently studying at the university in the United States. Later, we do not want him to send us money. It is up to him to decide if he wants to be in a relationship with an American or a Chinese woman. If he wants to get married or not. He is free to choose. I would have preferred to be a man. Men have more abilities than women. They also have more responsibilities. A woman should be financially independent. I am.
Lucia (b.1976) I am an only child. I have never suffered from being an only child. I grew up surrounded by friends. I have never felt alone. I met my husband during my studies at the university. I got married at the age of 33. A year later, I was pregnant with my son. I would have preferred to have a girl. My mother also wanted a granddaughter.
If I were sure that my second child would be a girl, I would try to be pregnant again. But now Ií m too old, the pregnancy would be risky. A mother must be like water. She supports her family. Currently my parents live near our apartment. Everyday they come home to help us to raise our son. They mainly cook. My husband and I are too busy with our work. The help of my parents is essential. In China, the grandparents who help to take care of their grandchild≠ ren is the tradition. I worry a bit because my son does not fit the stereotype of the Chinese boy. He is not sporty, he prefers to read in his bedroom. He is very calm. A boy must be strong, handle the situation, he must help others. He must be rowdy, active, athletic. My son is very sweet.
Jiang (b.1998) I am an only child. When I was a child, my parents asked me if I wanted to have a bro≠ ther or a sister. I answered that I did not want it because I thought my brother or sister would have stolen from me the love of my parents. Being an only child led me to become selfish. My grandparents wanted my parents to have a second child, a son, to continue the family bloodline. They put pressure on them but without success. I am single. I prefer to stay alone. I am against marriage. I do not understand why people want to get married. I would have liked to be a boy. Everything is easier for them. They are privileged, especially in China. Later I want to be independent and travel around the world.
Jiang (b.1998)
Xu Fuyao and Liu Xianyi
ë Boys and girls are equally good.í In 2000, the Chinese government established a campaign called ´ Cherish the Girls ª to fight the elimination of girls. Its purpose was to promote the social status of these and to improve the living conditions of families with only girls. Through this campaign, the govern≠ ment hoped to rebalance the relationship of masculinity at birth. Various slogans have been used including this one. This initiative of the Chinese government has globally failed to redress the deficit of women at young ages, its implementation has not been widespread nor identical throughout the country.
A baby tub near Shaxi, in the Yunnan Province. ´ Infanticide has long been practiced in China, particularly in the center of the country and in the South. (...) In todayí s Chinese society, infan≠ ticide remains above all a means of selecting the sex of its children in a context of poverty and imposed reduction of fertility. (...) it is impossible to estimate the current impact of infanticide on the gender imbalance at young ages. (...) now, the phenomenon remains limited to remote villages. (...) For an infanticide to be possible, external controls must be weak; therefore, it can only be practiced in villages where women give birth at home rather than at the hospital and where there are no police offices or autopsies, so that the disappearance of a child can be relatively unnoticed. ´ The contempt against villagers who have no sons, the abuse of their in≠ laws, the husbandí s preventive threats, prompt many of the wo≠ men from the southern province of Guang≠ dong to give birth at home, with the help of a neighbor, instead of going to the hospital. If ití s a boy, they give thanks to the gods; if ití s a girl, they drown her in a tub prepared in advance. Apart from the tub, the most com≠ mon methods in Guangdong seem choking and other drowning or asphyxiation: the girl is put in a bag or wrapped in several layers of clothing and chokes; or she is thrown into a haystack, a cesspool, a river, a pond. Sometimes they bury her alive. ª (B ianco and Hua, 1989) ª. AttanÈ Isabelle, En espÈ rant un filsÖ La mas≠ culinisation de la population chinoise, Paris, Les Editions de lí Ined, coll. ë ë les Cahiers de lí Inedí í , 2010, p. 168.
Zhang Yan is 26 years old. She is a young mother of two boys. The eldest has a mental disability. In 1994, the Chinese government voted a law on ´ protection of women and children ª aimed at prohibiting the birth of physically and/or mentally disabled children. Although currently this law is gradually being relaxed, China remains a country where the living conditions of children with intellectual disa≠ bilities, malformations or physical disabilities are very precarious. As in the past, they are often abandoned for economic reasons but also because of beliefs and shame. In some parts of the country, people think that a childí s disability is a punishment for the sins com≠ mitted by the parents or by the child himself in a previous life. In case of mental illness, some are convinced that this is the devil or a divine punishment. Parents, ashamed of having given birth to a handicapped child, also fear the judgment of others. Bordeleau Karine, Les conditions de vie et de soins dans un orphelinat chinois et leur impact sur le dÈ veloppement des enfants : une È tude de cas, 2007, https://archipel.uqam.ca/909/1/M10058.pdf
Ancestorí s worship. The traditional preference for sons stems from the patriarchal system and Confucianism, still advocated in China, which states that ´ man is superior to woman ª . In China, a son is the guarantee of the perpetuation of the family bloodline, the care of parents during their old age, the transmission of family pa≠ trimony and economic support because he is considered as a contribution of labor force for the farm or family business and will be re≠ quired to take over the management of family affairs. Having a son also allow to perpetuate ancestorí s worship, worship of honoring the spirits by making offerings and sacrifices and preserving their burials. In return, the ancestors spread good fortune and protection to them. The cult can only survive if there is a male heir.
Lu (b.1986)
Li Jie (b.1930)
Lu (b.1986) My family lives in the countryside. My parents have four children. Four sons. I am the third one. My family and I are from the Hani ethnic minority. The Hanis had also to respect the birth control policy. My parents were allowed to have two children. They had to pay a fine for their third and fourth sons. My parents wanted a lot of children because it is a tradition for the ethnic minorities. Having four sons allowed them to have a better status within their village. The more sons you have, the more you are respected. I got married at the age of 29, which is late for a Hani man. My parents put pressure on me to find a wife as soon as possible. But I did no follow their advice. I told them to be patient and to trust me. Now I live with my parents in≠la ws, my wife and my son. When my wife became pregnant, we hoped it would be a son. Our parents absolutely wanted our first child to be a boy. This is very important for the ethnic minorities, even more than for the Han. Now we want a second child. We hope it will be a girl. Having a son and a girl is ideal. A man must be responsible and work hard. A woman must be respectful, faithful, kind, take care of the children. And above all loyal to her family. If her salary is lower, it is not important. The most important is that she looks after the children and the house. In remote villages, there are more single men than women. Many men of my generation are single. They may stay that way all their lives. Before, men found a woman more easily because they paid the ë bride priceí , about 7000 yuan. I think the birth control policy has regulated our population which was too dense. The birth control policy is flexible to the needs of the country.
Li Jie (b.1930) My wife is 84 years old. We are both farmers. It means that we cultivate what we need for food. We have four daughters.
They are all married and live with their in≠ laws. Each of them have two children. They live far from here. They visit us rarely. Because we have no son, nobody takes care of us.
Wu Yan Hong (b.1982) I am an only child. When I was a child, I never felt alone because I was surrounded by cousins and neighbors of my age with whom I got along well. My parents had a farmerí s hukou and they worked at the factory. At the time it was not easy as farmers to have the status of workers. If theyí d had a second child, they would have lost their job. They didní t wanted to lose their job. I got married at more than 30 years old. My husband had already been married a first time. He is from an ethnic minority. We, the Han women, we do not want to be in a relationship with men of ethnic minorities because they have a bad reputation. My parents were not happy that I got married to a divorced man. Especially my mother. We had a son, who is now one year old. Since my husband already had a child during his first marriage, our child is considered like a second child. We can not have any more. My husband and I are rarely at home because of our work. So my parents are raising our son.
Wu Yan Hong (b.1982)
ë To strengthen our population and to raise awar≠ eness of the current state of our country, we have to uphold birth control as a basic policy of the state.í
Yang Bao (b.1991)
Wang Jin (b.1981) and his family
DanDan (b.1984)
Yang Bao (b.1991) I am an only child. My parents live in the countryside. I have a good relationship with my mother, not with my father. He criticizes me often. He absolutely wants me to get married as soon as possible. He tries to find me a wife. He organizes blind dates. I do not want to get married. If my father does not respect my choice, I will not talk to him anymore. I am in a relationship for 3 years. But I do not consider myself being really in a relationship. Sometimes I break up with my girlfriend because she wants to get married and I do not. She puts pressure on me. If I got married one day, my parents have to pay for an apartment or a house. They have been saving money for several years. I would like to have two children minimum, ideally a boy and a girl. People who say that having a boy or a girl it is the same, they lie. They always want to have a son. Especially men. Men must have a good job and a good salary. To be married and have children. I am angry against these expectations. My friends who are in the same situation as me are angry too. If I had to get married one day, I would like my wife to do the housework and cook. She should be easygoing, loyal to her family. Do not go out to party at night. She should have a good job and a good salary. It does not matter whether she comes from the city or the country≠ side, that she is pretty and smart. DanDan (b.1984) I was born in the Xinjiang Province. My parents have six children. All born after 1980. I am the fourth child. I have three older sisters, a younger sister and a younger brother. My brother is the last child. My parents absolutely wanted to have a son. Only their first child got a hukou. All the others got a hukou later because they were out≠ of≠ plan. My parents kept their first, fifth and sixth children with them. Two of my sisters were sent to our relatives. After primary school, they came back to live with my parents.
At the age of one, I was sent to another province, Jiangsu Province. I was adopted by my fatherí s sister. I am the only among my siblings to have been adopted. My adoptive parents had a son after having me. I consider them my parents. I always knew that I had been adopted. They never hid it from me. I could not talk about it at school. Now that I am an adult, I understand why my biological parents did not keep me. But I am still angry against them. My adoptive parents are very loving. They treated me equally with my half≠br other. We do not have a very good relationship. He is jealous of me. He thinks I stole some attention and resources of our parents from him while I am not their biological daughter. Thanks to my adoptive parents, I went to the university. My sisters and brother did not. Now I live near my adoptive parents. I send them money every month. I do not send money to my biological parents, but if they needed help, I would give them. I live with my husband and my 8 years old daughter. I am 3 months pregnant with my second child. It is not my choice. Ideally I did not wanted a child at all. I agreed to have one. The second child is against my will. My husband absolutely wants to have a second child. I wanted my first child to be a girl because girls take better care of their parents than boys. A girl represents less economic pressure. Even having a child is risky. He may not take care of his parents when they will become old. I had my first child for this reason. To make sure someone will take care of my husband and me later. But I am afraid it will not happen. The economic pressure, the many responsibilities, the abilities, the time it takes to have a child is a burden. My biological parents were punished for not respecting the birth control policy. They were poor. They lost their job. They lost their furnitures. Their food reserves. They had to pay fines. My mother had an operation to be sterilized. They were helped by relatives. I think the mentality of my biological parents is a bad thing.
They were poor and had too many children. They could hardly feed them and clothe them. They could not offer them a better education and therefore a better life. They did not have a life of their own, they could not work. They only looked after their children. They had no plans for the future. I do not think the problem comes from the government, but from the education. Poor parents have many children because when they will become old, they woní t have a pension. Their only ways of subsistence is the economic support of their children. That is why they have so many children. I think the one≠ child policy has been a good thing for China. This has prevented poor families from having too many children. I am not happy with the new policy that allows to have two children. I think two is too much. Wang Jin (b.1981) I am an only child, like my wife. I never talked to my parents about it, but I think they were very happy to have a son. My family is traditional. It is important to have a son to perpetuate the family bloodline. My wife and I come from the Henan Province. We were classmates. We lost each other during our university studies and we ended up together afterwards. We got married at the age of 27. For my parents, you have to get married before you turn 30. My wife got pregnant at 29. We could know the sex of our child by doing an echography in a private hospital. For us, growing up as an only child has never been a problem. We did not feel alone. We were surrounded by our family, our friends. That is why we only want one child. Our parents live in the Henan Province. They sometimes come a few months to help us raise our son who is now 8 years old. Currently my mother lives with us. My parents paid for our first apartment in the city. It was a pressure for them. They had to borrow from the bank. According to the Chinese tradition, you have to raise a son in a poor environment so that he builds himself. For a girl, it is the opposite. You must offer her as many activities as possible so that she will have a better chance to succeed in life.
A man has to work outside, to know how to manage external relations. He must have more responsibilities, even within the family. For a woman, it is the opposite. I agree with that.
Feast of the ´ ful l month ª. After the birth, the mother and her baby must stay for a whole month inside the house and not leave it because the mother has to rest. On the thirtieth day is organized the feast of the ´ ful l month ª, which marks the official welcome of the child within his family and his presentation to the society with the announ≠ cement of his name to the ancestors and the entourage. In order to celebrate this birth, the family and the neighborhood sometimes gather around a large banquet together, which can also be used to spread the success of the family to the local community, such as at a wedding or a burial.
Xinyu Lin (b.2001) and Qingchen Han (b.2001)
Zhu Xiao Ye (b.1998)
Fan Fan (b.1988)
Xinyu Lin (b.2001) and Qingchen Han (b.2001) I am an only child. I do not feel alone because I have hobbies and a girlfriend. Xinyu Liu would have liked to have a big brother. Ití s been eighteen months together. We never slept together. We are waiting to be eighteen years old. My parents taught me not to be selfish. I am close to them. They know that I have a girlfriend. They put pressure on me for my studies. I do not have good grades like Xinyu Liu. I would like to study abroad. In Canada. I want to work hard and succeed in my studies. To get a good job. Ití s my responsibility because my parents paid for my studies. Later, I will send them money. My parents want me to stay abroad. There is too much competition in China. There are more opportunities abroad. Going to Canada is expensive. My parents leave me the choice. Either their money will be used for my studies abroad. Or I stay in China and the money will be used for my wedding. I choose to study abroad. I would like to get married after my studies and have children. I wish to have a girl first.
Zhu Xiao Ye (b.1998) During my studies at the university, I could study for one year in the United States. Now I live with my parents and my maternal grandparents. Even if my parents bought me an apartment. I am single. I have few friends. My friends are living in the United States, in Nanjing, around the wor≠ ld, but they are not in the city where I live. I talk to them through the social networks. I would like to be in a relationship. But for that, I have to make friends first. And that is a problem. I do not want to meet new people. I can not leave the city.
I have to stay with my parents and my grandparents. I have to take care of them because I am their only child. It is my duty and my honor to take care of my parents. I think China has a lot of problems. I can not fix them. I only wish to live a peaceful life. To have a good job, make money and have a family.
Fan Fan (b.1988) I am an only child. My parents would have preferred to have a son. My maternal grandparents too. They always have told me that. Sometimes my life was complicated because of that reason. During the echography, the doctor lied to my parents. He told them that they were waiting for a boy. He was afraid my mother would abort for the second time. My mother had a first abortion because she had been pregnant be≠ fore the wedding. Now I still live with my parents. I recently bought an apartment and I will move in soon. I lived for 6 years in London, where I studied. I am single. I am looking for someone. I am looking for an older man, about 40 years old, who has a certain status. My parents are organizing blind dates. My friends introduce me to men. But it is hard to find someone. A year ago, I was suffering a lot because of this situation. My parents putted a lot of pressure on me. Now that I am 31, it is less difficult. I feel stronger. Now that my parents have understood me, they are more peaceful.
Arranged marriages in Kunming. These ë marketsí take place in every city in China, most of the time in public places like parks or even in shopping centers. People meet once a week or even several times depending on the size of the city. This event brings together mainly marriage agencies but especially parents of young single adults who have difficulty finding a partner. The sheets represent single persons, and on each of them is written several information such as date of birth, height, weight, level of education, job, salary, the expectations of the person and often the number of the mother to make contact. It seems that most women are looking for potential husbands in this way.
Bao Yong Juan (b.1994)
Bao Yong Juan (b.1994) My parents are farmers. When I was younger, I had to help them with housework, at the farm and to feed the pigs. I still help them today. Now that I have a job, I send them money every month. My parents signed the one≠ child contract and got some profits. They received money from the government. I got married at the beginning of 2019, at 25 years old. My husband is 27. I got married because of love and because of my parents. They wanted me to get married as soon as possible in order to qui≠ ckly have children. I think that 25 is too early to get married. I do not want to have children right away. I hope to have two children, a boy and a girl.
Yang Cui (b.1983)
Yu Ling (b.1981) and her mother
Yang Cui (1983) I have a little brother who is now 31 years old. My parents absolutely wanted a son. They spoiled my brother. For example, they cooked delicious food for him. The rests were for me. As a child, I had to take care of the housework. My brother never had to help my parents. My family is part of the Hani ethnic minority. My father died when I was 21 years old. My mother remarried with another man and we lost contact. My brother is still single because my mother did not save money to pay him a house or an apartment in case he got married. Now, no woman wants him. I am a divorced mother. I raise alone my two daughters. I met my ex≠h usband at 21 years old. We got married quickly. We stayed together for almost 9 years. He was kind, then he changed and became violent. He started beating me when I was pregnant with our first child. He did not work, he did not earn money. I had to support our family alone. I had a second child in the hope that my ex≠ husband will change. I was hoping it was a boy. My ex≠ husband may have quieted down. But he kept beating me. So I asked for a divorce. I had to wait a long time to get it. My ex≠ husband did not want to do it amicably. I had to take the case to court. Ití s been 4 years since I was divorced. My ex≠ husband did not want the custody of our daughters because they are girls. He does not pay child support. Ití s hard for me to raise them. I wish they had a good education. That they do not find themselves in the same situation as me. I want them to have a better life. My ex≠ husband lives 200 meters from us. He did not remarry, no woman wants him. The neighborhood stares at me. They speak ill of me because I am divorced.
Yu Ling (b.1981) My father would have liked to have a son, my grandparents a grandson. I learned from my mother that after the childbirth, when my father learned that he had a daughter, he left the hospital to go to work. I am a single mother. I met my ex≠h usband on the website QQ. We got married at the age of 28. I got married both for love and under pressure. My ex≠ husband asked me three times in marriage. The first two times, I said no. The third time, he gave me an ultimatum: ´ Or you accept, or I leave you be≠ cause I am wasting my time with you. ª I got pregnant at 31 years old. Now my son is 8 years old. We wanted our child to be a boy. We stayed married for 7 years, then we divorced. I wanted to share the housework at home. I did not want to take care of everything. I did not want to obey my husband as the Chinese tradition dictates. My ex≠ husband did not tell me anything. He was influenced by his father. One day, when my son was 3 years old, he asked me: ´ Why dad does not love you? And grandfather either? ª I asked for divorce. My ex≠h usband was angry. He sued me. I had custody of my son for 3 years. Now he lives with his father. I see him every weekend and a few days during the holidays. I wanted to keep my son but I can not offer him an apartment in a better district of the city, so I can not offer him a better school. My ex≠h usband has a better job and a better salary. He lives in a better district, near a very good school. We decided that our son would stay with his father, even if it is hard for me.
ë To put birth control into practice, the villagers themselves should take responsibility to have it carried out correctly so to ensure a ba≠ lanced work life.í
There were many cases of anonymous aban≠ donment in China during the one≠ child policy. What is less known is that before the Chinese government made national adoption almost completely impossible (with the national adop≠ tion law passed in 1991), there were cases of national adoption arranged between relatives, friends and strangers. Poverty was one of the main reasons for adopting≠ out an additional child and at the same time it helped relatives or friends without children who wanted one. When these arranged national adoptions were not possible, some birth parents investigated and targeted families who could potentially want a child. Then, they abandoned their child at their doorstep, lighting up firecrackers to prevent them while preserving their anonymity by hiding themselves.
Monica (b.1996)
This woman, too old to walk long distances, was waiting for her daughter. Her daughter was responsible for washing her motherí s clothes and doing their shopping at the market that was several miles away. The birth control policy has caused a major problem: ´ the heavy burden borne by only children ª. Young married couples will have to take care of their parents, that means four elderly people. In China, it is a norm for the wife to take care of her in≠ laws without giving up her own parents, of which she sometimes becomes the only source of support. Girls are often perceived as more ´ affiliated ª than sons and are therefore expected to be more attached to their biological family. On the other hand, a man who shows devotion to his in≠ laws is always considered more admirable because he exceeds his strict duty as son≠ in≠ law. The duties of sons≠ in≠ law and daughters≠in≠l aw are not the same, but the one≠chil d policy has changed the expectations and the roles of each sex.
Monica (b.1996) I was born in the Shanxi Province. I have a big brother born in 1987. Now he is 32 years old. My mother wanted a second child. A girl who will stay with her when she will be old. At her job, the employees had a mandatory medical appointment every 6 months to check that they were not pregnant. When she was pregnant with me, she had to hide her pregnancy. Her sister looks a lot like her. She passed the exams in her place. After my birth, my parents had to pay a fine. At their work, it was forbidden to have a second child. They would have lost their job if they had not paid the fine. They are legally divorced but they still live together. Everyone knew about my illegal birth. But because my parents were divorced, it was no longer possible to hold them responsible. In China, when a child is born after a divorce, there is no prosecution to know who is responsible. I got a hukou as an independent member of my family. So I was not registered in my parentí s home. When my brother left home, I was able to be registered in my parentí s home. My big brother is protective and attentive to me. I am not very close to my mother. But I know she and my brother talk about me. My parents treated me equally with my brother. They did not preferred him.
ë (our) life has to change, the number of births has to be accounted for.í
In the countryside, there is a phenomenon called ´ left behind children ª . It is very common for parents living in the countryside to go to work in the city, where it is easier to find a job with a better salary. They leave their children aged between 0 and 7 years old with their parents, who must then take care of them. The parents living in the city do not return home very often, maybe three times a year if not once.
Liu (b.1972), Ma, Weiwei and Leilei
Liu (b.1972) My friends introduced me to my wife, Ma. We got married at the age of 27 and 23 (her). We have two children, a daughter, Weiwei, born in 2005 and a son, Leilei, born in 2009. For our first child, we asked permission so that Weiwei would get a hukou in the city afterwards. We wanted a second child because we did not want our daughter to feel alone. Me and my wife come from another province, from northeastern China. Weiwei would not grow up near her cousins. Normally, we were not allowed to have a second child. As I am successful in business and have good relations, we did not pay a fine and our son got a hukou. When our children were little, my parents helped us to raise them and Ma worked. Now she stopped working to take care of them. When Weiwei and Leilei will become adults, we do not want them to send us money as tradition dictates. We do not want to live with them or take care of our grandchildren. We want our children to become independent.
Zhao Ruo Han (b.1979) I am an only child. At that time my parents were not allowed to have two children. When I was a child, I would have liked to have a brother or a sister. Thatí s why I have two children. To be an only child means to be alone. Alone to help your parents, to take care of them, keep them company. We must also be able to take care of our parents in≠ law, our own family. Ití s a burden. My friends introduced me to my husband. I got married at the age of 25. A year later I got pregnant with my daughter. She was born in 2005. I could do an echography and know the sex of my children in a private hospital. Our son was born in 2010. We wanted to be ready to have a second child. I would like to have a third child, but it would be too complicated. I do not work anymore to take care of my children. China is not ready to encourage families to have two, three or even more children.
Raising a child in China is very expensive. It takes a lot of times for the parents. Ití s difficult because they also have to work. For me, the ideal number of children is four, two girls and two boys. But the country is not ready.
Zhao Ruo Han (b.1979) and her children
ë For a balanced population, the two≠ child policy should be implemented everywhere.í
Gu Jiatong (b.2002) and Wei Yuzhou (b.2001)
Gu Jiatong (b.2002) I am an only child. My boyfriend too. Ití s been a year and five months together. We are in the same school and in the same class. Chinese teachers are against love relationships in high school. They punish the students. For example by displaying their names on a wall for one week. But that does not have an impact. Couples are hiding in school, but not outside. My boyfriend would like to get married later and have two children. I do not want it because after I will be less beautiful and older.
Xu Rui and Geng Xiaotong
Qi Yifan
The end of one child per family in China?
In 2015, the Chinese government announced the end of its one≠c hild policy, which had been highly controversial in that country since Chinaí s fertility had become one of the lowest in the world. Will the new ì two≠ child policyî bring fertility back up? Isabelle AttanÈ says it woní t, because of the increasing costs of raising children and the difficulties Chinese women currently have in reconciling family life and a job.
Fertility in China started falling in the early 1970s, at the time of the third birth control campaign imposing delayed marriage, birth spacing and a maximum family size of two or three children. Implemented in a context of strong social control, these measures were asso≠ ciated with one of the sharpest declines in fertility ever recorded in the world in such a short space of time, with the mean number of children per woman dropping from 5.8 in 1970 to 2.8 in 1979. In Chinese cities, it was already well below replacement level by that year (1.4 children per woman). Yet despite the Chinese authoritiesí determination to impose even stricter birth control with the one≠ child policy introduced in 1979, fertility levelled off in the 1980s, and the mean number of children per woman hovered above two throughout the decade. For all the heavy sanctions on families who failed to comply with the injunction to limit family size, the one≠ child policy met with strong resistance in rural areas and the autho≠ rities were forced to relax the rules in 1984. From then on, a second child was generally authorized in rural areas, notably if the first one was a girl, although the rules varied across provinces. Chinese fertility now very low Chinese fertility started falling again in the 1990s, and then dropped lastingly below replacement level. Birth control played a decisive role in this decrease, but the social and economic changes that were taking place (health improvements, higher cost of living, rise in educational levels, etc.) and the resulting shift in family norms, were also drivers of fertility reduction. Most Chinese sources agree that fertility fell below 1.5 child≠ ren per woman in the late 1990s, subsequently rea≠ ching a level of between 1.2 and 1.5, among the lowest in the world. This situation heralds not only the end of population growth in China, but also exceptionally
rapid population ageing and a substantial reduction in the number of working≠ age adults. Fertility decline and skewed sex ratios The aim of the one≠ child policy was to slow population growth in order to promote economic development following the reforms launched in 1978. In the years that followed, with the liberalization of education and health systems, couples were increasingly faced with a trade≠ off between the desire for children and the ever≠ growing cost of raising a family. Against this backdrop, the decline in fertility and the growing availability of prenatal ultrasound scans from the late 1980s led to a massive increase in sex≠ selective abortions, intended to eliminate female fetuses within a sociocultural context of son preference. The proportion of male births started increasing sharply as a result. The sex ratio at birth is normally around 105 boys per 100 girls, and in 1981 it was still 107.2 in China. It then started to rise, peaking at 120.6 in 2008 before slowly falling to 113.5 boys per 100 girls in 2015. This skewed sex ratio at birth was reinforced by excess female infant mortality since the 1980s (the infant mortality rate was 25% for boys and 29% for girls in 1990, and 13% and 14% in 2009), and is now affecting the adult population as the cohorts with a deficit of girls advance in age. The social consequences of this phenomenon, combined with those of population ageing, are a major concern for the Chinese authorities, and this explains why the one≠ child policy has recently been abandoned. New ì two≠c hild policyî The one≠ child policy adopted in 1979 was always intended to be temporary. However, it was not until 2012 (the year in which the 2010 census results were published) that the previously inflexible line of the
Chinese authorities finally began to change. The poli≠ tical ambition to ì stabilize fertility at a low levelî gave way to a new objective of ì perfecting population policy to promote balanced population growth over the long termî . By the end of 2013, the one≠c hild policy was re≠ laxed by a provision authorizing urban couples where at least one spouse is an only child to have two children. Up to then, only couples where both spouses were only children had the right to a second child. This measure was gradually extended to all provinces during the first half of 2014, bringing the number of couples eligible for a second child up to around 11 million. Two years later, in October 2015, the Chinese authori≠ ties announced the end of the one≠c hild policy. Un≠ der the new policy,introduced in the hope of slowing ageing and restoring a balanced sex ratio, each couple is allowed two children. They must still obtain prior au≠ thorization from family planning offices, however. The adoption of the two≠ child policy has raised the number of eligible couples (i.e. those with one child) to around 90 million. In addition, the revision in early 2016 of the 2002 law on population and birth control has removed two major barriers to a fertility recovery by abandoning two pillars of the Chinese birth control system since the 1970s, namely the promotion of late marriage and childbearing, and compulsory contraception. Will birth rates start rising again? The end of the one≠c hild policy is too recent to mea≠ sure its effects on fertility. However, available statistics, while incomplete, suggest that the easing of the rule in 2013 did not reverse the trend: by the end of 2014, of the 11 million or so eligible couples, only slightly more than a million had applied to have a second child; by September 2015, a month before the one≠ child policy was abandoned, the number was still only 1.8 million, around 16% of eligible couples. This result is below the level predicted by two sur≠ veys conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (in 2014) and the National Health and Family Planning Commission (in 2015), in which respectively 43% and 39% of couples concerned by the 2013 easing of rules reported planning to have a second ñ now autho≠ rized ñ child. Moreover, the enthusiasm shown in the months following the adoption of the measure in late 2013 rapidly died down: some 150,000 applications for permission to have a second child were submitted in July 2014, and a similar number in August, but one year later, the number had fallen to just 80-90,000 each month. In 2014, China registered 16.9 million births (470,000 more than in 2013), but in 2015 the number fell to 16.6 million (320,000 fewer than in 2014, due partly to a drop of 5 million between 2014 and 2015 in the num≠ ber of women of reproductive age, and to a long≠ term trend of increasing age at marriage). According to
the National Health and Family Planning Commission, 800,000 additional children were born in 2015 as a result of the new two≠ child policy ñ a figure well below the 2 million or more annual births that were forecast after the law was relaxed in late 2013. In Shanghai, the city where population ageing is the most advanced in China but where, from 2009, couples where both partners were only children were actively encouraged to have a second child, fertility is still exceptionally low (0.7 children per woman in 2014). Based on the scant data available, the easing of the birth control policy ap≠ pears in the short term to have had a negligible impact on births. Low fertility paradox In Japan and South Korea, the exceptionally low fertility (1.4 and 1.2 children per woman, respectively, in 2013) is the result of a paradox: continued gender inequa≠ lity within the family, in parallel with a gradual shift towards greater gender equality in the public sphere. This incompatibility between career and family discou≠ rages couples from having children. A similar situation is emerging in China, where women have become more independent since the 1950s, and now have more control over their personal and professional life choices. The period of Communist economic policy encouraged women to enter the workforce, but did not eradicate gender stereotypes. The roles of the husband as the family breadwinner, and the wife as a mother and homemaker remain strongly ingrained, not only in conjugal practices, but also in the partnersí mutual expectations. Yet the still highly valued image of motherhood was not sufficient to produce an upturn in births after 2013. This situation is especially puzzling given that the share of female city≠ dwellers in paid employment has decreased significantly, from 76% in 1990 to 61% in 2010. It is only in rural areas (where more than eight in ten women have a job) that female employment, a major priority of Maoí s government, has withstood the structural reforms of the labour market. In the cities, womení s unemployment rate is twice that of men, and they are often discriminated against (lower wages for equivalent jobs, unfair dismissal after maternity leave, recruitment discrimination, forced early retirement). Inadequate protection on the labour market and the lack of state support for childcare make it increasingly difficult and costly for women to reconcile work and fa≠ mily life. Couples are obliged to make choices, and this often results in delayed parenthood or, in some cases, permanent childlessness. Priorities that favour small families The drop in fertility since the 1970s has had a consi≠ derable impact on childrení s lives too. The various
components of family transmission, both material and symbolic, are now concentrated on a few children; they are subject to higher expectations, are listened to more and enjoy more focused attention and care. Rising living standards and the development of consumer society have led to greater investment in the child. But since the 1980s, when schooling and healthcare stop≠ ped being free, Chinese parents have had to make ma≠ jor financial sacrifices for their children. This continually rising expenditure cuts into family budgets: school fees (+12% annually on average from 1995 to 2007), housing (+16%) and healthcare (+15%) have risen faster than wages (+9% annually on average over the same period). Sharp rises in the cost of living and greater insecurity in the labour market (particularly for women) are disincen≠ tives for couples eligible for a second child to have one. Having children is no longer the priority it once was in China: young couples want to decide for themselves when to start a family and increasingly put their careers first and have children later. In the five years from 2005 to 2010, the average age of first≠ti me Chinese mothers rose two years, from 24.6 to 26.6, and couplesí prefe≠ rences are for smaller families. A 2001 survey showed that 35% of women between 20 and 49 only wanted one child and 57% wanted two. In Shanghai in 2008, the mean number of children desired was 1.07. Possible pro≠n atalist measures Most Chinese demographers agree that the new ì two≠ child policyî will not ensure a sufficient increase in fertility to significantly affect demographic ageing and the fall in the active population. One way of inciting Chinese couples to have larger families would be to make it easier to have as many children as they wish, by supporting a better work≠li fe balance and reducing the impact of economic conditions on the decision to have a child. Any sustained upturn in fertility will require at the very least protecting womení s position in the labour market and providing more help for families to care for their dependants, whether children or old people. Isabelle AttanÈ
AttanÈ Isabelle, ë ë The end of one child per family in China?í í , Population & Societies, 2016/7 (No 535), p. 1-4. URL: https://www.cairn.info/revue≠ population≠ and≠ societies≠ 2016-7≠ page≠ 1.htm
THE LAND OF PROMISES 希望国 All the photographs were taken by Youqine LefË vre between 2017 and 2019. Except the archives (in Part I) taken by the parents. Texts: Youqine LefË vre Research text: Isabelle AttanÈ Editing: Youqine LefË vre Book design: Youqine LefË vre Printing: Graphius (Belgium) Binding: Corinne Clarysse and Youqine LefË vre First edition of 15, self≠publi shed. KASK © 2020 Youqine LefË vre www.youqinelefevre.com SPECIAL THANKS TO: All my family and friends, especially my father. FrÈdÈr ique, Anne, Kim, Harrison and their parents. Li Ming and Yu Ling for their precious help during the preparation of the trip to China in 2017 as well as for the smooth running of the stay. Xinran and the volunteers of The Mothersí Bridge of Love, especially Lucia and her family and Fan Fan who hosted me and were of great help, as Ellier Leng too. Simon, my tour guide in the Hunan Province in 2017 and the tour guides and drivers of 2019, especially Wendy and Cherry, without whom these discoveries and meetings whould not have been possible. Serge from the travel agency Asian Roads and Marc from Ciel Yunnan for their understanding regarding my request. MÈlan ie and Chen. KASK and the teachers who followed my project, especially my mentor Max Pinckers. Tom Callemin, Andrea Copetti, Geert Goiris, Olivier Cornil and Anja Hellebaut for the precious feedbacks. Benina Hu for translating texts from Chinese into English. And all the other people that helped by being kind to me during this process.
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