In May 2021, the Chinese Communist Party announced that Chinese couples could have up to three children, replacing the one-child policy that had been in place since 1979. The change came about with the realization that China lacked enough young people to support a burgeoning aging population. The harmful economic effects of this decades-long policy were finally catching up.
Aside from looking at it from a macroeconomic level, it is also important to see how these top-down policies affected individuals. Often, laws and/or mandates neglect to look at the human level.
“One Child Nation” provides a human face to a law that has wiped out around 400 million lives from the face of the earth.
Propaganda Push
The movie starts out with something many of us are familiar with today—news reports and propaganda. Though the term “fake news” may not have been coined back then, the news certainly played a part in propagating fear over a growing Chinese population. The claims that China would face starvation if families had an average of three children is laughable in hindsight given the regime’s new policy.
If the fear-mongering through the media was not enough, posters and catchy slogans were plastered on walls and printed on playing cards and snack boxes. Kindergarteners chanted and recited pro-policy rhymes from their textbooks; folk arts and theatrical performances echoed the same sentiment: The one-child policy is good.
The Participants’ Accounts
Director Nanfu Wang stands in front of one of the many murals promoting the virtues of the one-child policy in her hometown. (Amazon Studios)
Using her own family as a starting point, Ms. Wang interviewed her mother, brother, aunt, uncle, and even grandparents to find out how they dealt with the policy. She then branched out to local officials who recalled harrowing memories of tying up and abducting women who refused to be sterilized; the local midwife who, despite what we know of that profession, was also involved in the sterilization of women and the abortion of fetuses, many in their last trimester, and some infants were even born alive and then killed. There is also a family who had to give up one of their twin daughters. All of these incidents were in the name of the one-child policy.
Some individuals showed remorse and even repentance, but others who benefited monetarily from their participation in the policy implementation beamed for their service to the “motherland.” But regardless of what they felt, they all echo the same sentiment: They had no choice; there was nothing they could do.
A Behavior Modification Instrument
One might ask: How can a collective billion people just give in to the will of a small group of powerful people? This film tackles the issues of propaganda coupled with long-term indoctrination, as well as how the threat of punishment can destroy one’s scruples.
Each household had to display a plaque showing how well the family adhered to the Communist Party’s ideals. Families who disobeyed were lucky if they were told to give up a pig as payment of their “social maintenance fee” for their transgressions, but the consequences could be as much as losing their homes. It is eerily similar to the environmental, social, and governance agenda (ESG) in the news lately—one reason that this documentary is relevant today.
Unintended Consequences
As the policy implementation got under way, citizens found ways to either go with the flow or found ways around it. In a culture that prioritizes males, mothers were faced with the conundrum of whether to keep their firstborn daughters (thus ending the family line) or abandoning them so they can try for a son. Choosing the latter led to unintended consequences.
The film highlights one young man who decided to pick up a crying baby by the side of the road and took her to the orphanage. It was 1992 and China had just opened its doors to international adoption, which led to a huge demand for orphaned babies. The orphanage offered the young man $200 to “cover his costs,” and this one-man show soon organized a child-trafficking network multiplied by several other such groups spread across China. Whether the young man had a malicious intention or not, he ultimately paid for his crimes, though none of the orphanages were held accountable.
The Policy’s International Ripple Effect
Photographs of orphans who were up for adoption were published in local newspapers indicating their gender, birthdate, and birthplace. (Sundance Institute)
With 130,000 Chinese children adopted overseas since 1992, and American families adopting 63,043 children between 1999 and 2010, most adoptive families were told the same story: Their child was abandoned, and the child could hope for a chance at a better life abroad. But today, these adoptive parents are faced with the gut-punching possibility that their child might have been wrested from the arms of a mother who would have kept the child if she'd had a choice. Ms. Wang records another Chinese woman’s quest to reunite adopted children with their birth families in China with some small victories but also some heart-rendering disappointments.
Viewers who know little about the one-child policy will learn much from Ms. Wang’s compilation of narratives and firsthand insights, offering a truly local perspective. As you listen to the testimonies, you either empathize with them or count your blessings that you are not in their situation. And perhaps, like me, you hope that there will be no more abortions and forced sterilizations happening anywhere in the world. At the end of the day, it’s never a good idea to play God.
“One Child Nation” is an award-winning 2019 documentary by Nanfu Wang exploring the effects of China’s one-child policy. (Amazon Studios)
Winner of the U.S. Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019, ‘One Child Nation’ is available to watch on Amazon Prime.
‘One Child Nation’
Documentary
Directors: Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 23 minutes
Release Date: Aug. 9, 2019
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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Lynn Topel is a freelance writer and editor based in Maryland. When not busy homeschooling her sons, she enjoys reading, traveling, and trying out new places to eat.
