Xiao Kelian tried to kill herself after her only daughter died from leukemia at age 13. The grieving mother survived, but a year later, her husband filed for divorce, so he could remarry and have a son. Xiao was in her 40s and too old to bear more children by the time of their daughter’s death. Her husband told her he “needed to have descendants,” Xiao sighed.
Xiao, now 54, is a casual worker from Shenyang, and one of China’s millions of “orphan parents.”
The term refers to parents in China who have lost their only child.
With the abolition of China’s one-child policy announced in late October, couples are now allowed to have two children. This has left many orphan parents bitter that the change comes too late for them.
'Install it, install it,' they told me when I was still breastfeeding.
