Category: Adoption

Adoption and the One Child Policy

candrews2 / / Adoption, Population

By C. Andrews and G. Tate

Child abandonment and adoption have been major issues in China for a long time in part due to the One Child Policy.  The One Child Policy was introduced in 1979 in order to deal with the economic and social problems that overpopulation was bringing China.  While the policy has become more relaxed it has still created some imbalances in child abandonment and adoption.  The One Child Policy provides a huge incentive for a family to only have one child.  The families that do not abide by the policy face heavy monetary fines.  These fines can be as high as three times a yearly salary.  However, there are many exceptions to this policy.  Such as if a family’s first child is a girl or has a mental or physical illness, they can apply for another child.  If one of the parents is an only child, then that family can also have two children.  Ethnic minorities are also not subjected to this law.  The policy is becoming increasingly more relaxed and the exception for families in which one of the parents is an only child just recently was passed.  The more relaxed this policy becomes the more that people believe it will one day cease to exist (Kalman).

However, despite the policy’s increasing slack, it has still had a great effect on the public.  It has slowed down the population growth.  However, to what extent is a big question.  Many people believe that China’s population growth would have slowed significantly even without the One Child Policy.  Other similarly developing countries, such as Taiwan, have also seen their population growth slow during this time period.  The One Child policy is responsible for some of the population growth slow-down, just not all of it.  While the policy has helped China with many problems but unfortunately it has also caused problems.  It has caused a greater imbalance among genders.  In 2000, there were almost 19 million more boys under the age of 16 as girls in that same age group.  Because of the One Child Policy families have been desperate for a male child due to the greater societal value of males.  Males carry the family’s name and inheritance laws pass on property to them.  The demand for boys combined with the restrictions on the number of children a family can have has led to the abandonment and abortion of many female children.

The One Child Policy has been under quite a bit of scrutiny as not only its effectiveness has been in question but also the other glaring problems that it creates.  This policy, while one that is becoming much more lax, is a definite problem for China and is contributing to its gender imbalance as well as leading to many young girls living in extremely harsh conditions.

 

Sources:

“Adoption.com.” Accessed April 11, 2014. http://china.adoption.com/chinese/china-adoption-background.html.

Anders, Charlie. Associated Press, “io9.com.” Accessed April 11, 2014.

Baculinao, Eric. NBC News, “nbcnew.com.” Accessed April 11, 2014.

Johnson, Kay. “Infant Abandonment and Adoption in China.” Population and Development review.

no. 3 (1998): 469-510. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.furman.edu/stable/2808152 (accessed

Kalman, Jonathan. The Guardian, “theguardian.com.” Accessed April 11, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/31/time-running-out-china-one-child-policy-exemptions.

Robb, Alice. New Repubic, “New Republic.” Accessed April 11, 2014. http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115614/china-one-child-policy-facts-four-surprising-findings.

See also Gender and Adoption and Personal Adoption for more information.

Gender and Adoption

gtate / / Adoption

By G. Tate

In America, there is the stereotype that China favors male children over female children. This sexism is apparent in the amount of abandoned baby girls. In between 1999 and 2013, 88.9% of the 71,632 Chinese orphans adopted and brought into the United States were female.1 This statistic would imply that females outnumber males in the Chinese orphanages. The One-Child Policy plays into this sexism, although Chinese officials claim the “policy promote[s] gender equality.”2

“Foundling: An Adoption Journal: Imagining how her life might have been.” By real00 on Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
“According to a February 2005 report in the Weekend Standard, a Chinese business newspaper, demographers in China found a ratio of 117 boys per 100 girls under the age of 5 in the 2000 census. Thanks to China’s one-child policy, put into effect in 1979 in order to curb population growth, and a strong cultural preference for male children, this gender gap could result in as many as 60 million ‘missing’ girls from the population by the end of the decade.”3(Russell 2007)
 
“There are about 7 million abortions in China per year, 70 percent of which are estimated to be of females.”4 (Russell 2007)

The statistics listed above contribute to the idea of sexism and the idolization of male children. In Pink Pagoda: One Man’s Quest to End Gendercide in China, James Garrow describes his personal experiences of saving “more than forty thousand… babies whose lives [he was] instrumental in saving over… twelve years.”5 One of the first babies he saves was a baby girl “because of China’s ‘one child policy,’ [the father] wanted to ‘put the baby aside.'”6

“The red couch photo at the White Swan Hotel, July 2000.” By real00 on Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

It is very obvious that male children are given a priority in Chinese civilization due to the one child policy in such a way that they are either aborted, murdered, or abandoned.

 

More Information at One Child Policy and Personal Adoption Stories

1“Intercountry Adoption – Statistics,” US Department of State (blog), http://adoption.state.gov/about_us/statistics.php.
2Chow, Esther Ngan-ling, and Catherine White Berheide. Women, The Family, and Policy: a Global Perspective. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. 1994, page 71.
3Russell, Beth Nonte. “The Mystery of the Chinese Baby Shortage.” The New York Times, January 23, 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/opinion/23russell.html?pagewanted=all (accessed April 3, 2014).
4Russell.
5Garrow, James. The Pink Pagoda: One Man’s Quest to End Gendercide in China. Washington, D.C.: WND Books, 2012. http://furman.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=875581 (accessed March 05, 2014).
6Garrow.
Both pictures are by real00 on Flickr.

Adoption in China: Personal Adoption Stories

cmcneela / / Adoption

By Cat McNeela and G. Tate

In 1979, Deng Xiaoping and his economic reformers introduced the “One-Child Policy” as a temporary measure. Thirty-five years later, the Communist party still clings to this policy (Jian). Not only has this affected the Chinese population, but in the United States it has affected the adopted children and their families.

“Chinese girl with her Mother” by Catherine McNeela

 

Filmmaker, Linda Goldstein Knowlton of “Somewhere Between” interviewed four adopted Chinese teens who share their inner convictions about how they dwell on somewhere between cultures. Each teen cogently shared subtle thoughts and emotions about her path from China to the United States. This movie exemplifies how the girls are products of China’s “One-Child Policy”, and how there are social pressures that fueled parents’ quest for sons. Also, the movie dives into the psychology of being an immigrant in the American society. When the movie was released in 2011, Knowlton notes that of 127,500 adoptees from China, 80,000 lived in the United States when the film was produced.

“Chinese girls in orphanage” by Catherine McNeela

 

 

The stories are rather painful, yet shared with a sense of somber acceptance. When they were young children in China, each girl was left behind in a  depressing way. One girl was taken on a bus ride and told to wait for her cousin who never appeared. Another was left by her mother in a neighboring village; when her father went to look for her, she was already lost. During the film, they would show clips of birthday parties, and because they were abandoned, they did not know their real birthdays.

 

“Chinese girls playing” by Catherine McNeela

As transracial adoptees in white communities, the girls have felt that they never fully blended in. Throughout the movie, each girl called herself a “banana”—meaning yellow on the outside, white on the inside. Later, one of the girls refines this and says, “we are more like scrambled eggs”–the white and yellow mixed up.

 

“Chinese girl in her crib at orphanage” by Catherine McNeela

At one point, they each ached to know more about the “why” questions of their lives. For example, why were they in an orphanage, why were they adopted, or what became of their birth families? The term “abandoned” was used frequently, which escalated varying emotions. Whenever insecurities or pain surfaced in their voices, it centered on questions of their origin.

  • Knowlton, Linda. Somewhere Between. DVD. 2011

 

 

 

More Information at One Child Policy and Gender and Adoption