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One Child: The Story of China's Most Radical Experiment
An intimate investigation of the world's largest experiment in social engineering, revealing how its effects will shape China for decades to come and what that means for the rest of the world
When Communist Party leaders adopted the one-child policy in 1980, they hoped curbing birthrates would help lift China's poorest and increase the country's global stature. But at what cost? Now, as China closes the book on the policy after over three decades, it faces a population grown too old and too male, with a vastly diminished supply of young workers.
Mei Fong has spent years documenting the policy's repercussions on every sector of Chinese society. In One Child, she explores its true human impact, traveling across China to meet the people who live with its consequences. Their stories reveal a dystopian reality: unauthorized second children ignored by the state, only children supporting aging parents and grandparents on their own, villages teeming with ineligible bachelors. Fong tackles questions that have major implications for China's future: whether its Little Emperor cohort will make for an entitled or risk-averse generation; how China will manage to support itself when one in every four people is over sixty-five years old; and above all, how much the one-child policy may end up hindering China's growth.
Weaving in Fong's reflections on striving to become a mother herself, One Child offers a nuanced and candid report from the extremes of family planning.
When Communist Party leaders adopted the one-child policy in 1980, they hoped curbing birthrates would help lift China's poorest and increase the country's global stature. But at what cost? Now, as China closes the book on the policy after over three decades, it faces a population grown too old and too male, with a vastly diminished supply of young workers.
Mei Fong has spent years documenting the policy's repercussions on every sector of Chinese society. In One Child, she explores its true human impact, traveling across China to meet the people who live with its consequences. Their stories reveal a dystopian reality: unauthorized second children ignored by the state, only children supporting aging parents and grandparents on their own, villages teeming with ineligible bachelors. Fong tackles questions that have major implications for China's future: whether its Little Emperor cohort will make for an entitled or risk-averse generation; how China will manage to support itself when one in every four people is over sixty-five years old; and above all, how much the one-child policy may end up hindering China's growth.
Weaving in Fong's reflections on striving to become a mother herself, One Child offers a nuanced and candid report from the extremes of family planning.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published February 2, 2016
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February 9, 2017
The "One Child" policy was a useless policy that because of the egos of the politicians involved not wanting to lose face went ahead and caused misery for years and their children, overwhelmingly male, are suffering from it. This is despite figures proving that it was unnecessary and there could have been a policy of encouraging voluntary family control and contraception as was successfully carried out in Korea - the slogan was, ""Sons or daughters, let's have two children and raise them well.".
The policy was only applied to 36% of the population anyway. And 53% of them were allowed (with enormous fines) to have a second child if the first was, sadly, a girl. Country folk need more hands to produce the rice the government is going to steal - so they were allowed two children. And of course the rich and well-connected did as they always do in any society, which is whatever they damn well please.
Chinese policies do not seem to ever consider the people who will have to carry them out. They consider only economics. Since Chinese communism worked like a pyramid with even the lowest people on the rung, the urban and village poor being subject to supervision by the local party official, it was these people, the ordinary people who suffered the most. Witness the The Great Leap Forward which allowed uneducated thugs, power-hungry maniacs, bitter people who envied success and psychopaths to deliberately destroy much culture, private enterprise of any kind and anyone that showed signs of enjoying intellectual pursuits.
Anyone who had made money was evil and held back the working classes and therefore were class enemies and should be re-educated with theft of their property, forced labour, physical violence and often execution. . The Great Famine (see Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962 in which 30 million peasants died was another policy based on fallacial figures, big egos, saving face and the pyramid structure of the Communist party.
It's different now isn't it? China is a wildly capitalist economy and everyone is free to make money, get educated and enjoy culture. Well not quite everyone, women still have a hard time. But then they do in many countries, but that is tradition, right, not oppression? After all China wouldn't want to go the way of Singapore would it,
"In 1994 Singapore regretted giving equal rights to women. So you want to be the boss in your family, you don't want a wife who is smarter and earning more than you."
Quotes and notes from the book.
The policy was only applied to 36% of the population anyway. And 53% of them were allowed (with enormous fines) to have a second child if the first was, sadly, a girl. Country folk need more hands to produce the rice the government is going to steal - so they were allowed two children. And of course the rich and well-connected did as they always do in any society, which is whatever they damn well please.
Chinese policies do not seem to ever consider the people who will have to carry them out. They consider only economics. Since Chinese communism worked like a pyramid with even the lowest people on the rung, the urban and village poor being subject to supervision by the local party official, it was these people, the ordinary people who suffered the most. Witness the The Great Leap Forward which allowed uneducated thugs, power-hungry maniacs, bitter people who envied success and psychopaths to deliberately destroy much culture, private enterprise of any kind and anyone that showed signs of enjoying intellectual pursuits.
Anyone who had made money was evil and held back the working classes and therefore were class enemies and should be re-educated with theft of their property, forced labour, physical violence and often execution. . The Great Famine (see Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962 in which 30 million peasants died was another policy based on fallacial figures, big egos, saving face and the pyramid structure of the Communist party.
It's different now isn't it? China is a wildly capitalist economy and everyone is free to make money, get educated and enjoy culture. Well not quite everyone, women still have a hard time. But then they do in many countries, but that is tradition, right, not oppression? After all China wouldn't want to go the way of Singapore would it,
"In 1994 Singapore regretted giving equal rights to women. So you want to be the boss in your family, you don't want a wife who is smarter and earning more than you."
Quotes and notes from the book.
April 30, 2017
While I felt it was well-researched and covered a wide range of topics that either impact or are impacted by China's One Child policy, I did not particularly enjoy reading this book. But since it was for my book club, I soldiered on.
One big issue is that while I typically enjoy memoir and personal essay, I don't think it worked well for the author to share her own fertility issues and Chinese heritage narrative. She is trying to tie her story to the Chinese story, but I felt it diluted the focus of the book. The power of personal narratives to explain facets of the story came from the people she interviewed, heard about, or saw on international news, in the case of Feng Jianmei (I can only humbly recommend not Google image searching this poor woman who was forced to have a late-term abortion in 2012).
Otherwise, I was most interested in some of the offshoot issues that I had not considered - that most Asian countries have had major reductions in birthrate simply through propaganda and education programs, even China prior to the program had cut birthrate in half; the longreaching impact on the tax base and elder care that China will suffer despite the recent reduction of this policy; the exploration into how much of the international adoption of Chinese girls may have been a result of human trafficking (awful); what happens when men outnumber women 129 to 100.
This reminds me of a weird moment where the author points out moments in history caused by an abundance of men, and she includes the Arab Spring, which made me think she assumed that was a negative event, and now I just feel confused.
We talk sometimes at work about how this increased pressure on each "one child," to succeed not just for themselves but for their two parents and four grandparents, can impact our international students from China. As we've seen an increase of Chinese students, this has become a bigger topic. Mei Fong shows an interesting side to the "one child," that of the "little emperor" - her description of the character studies of Chinese children vs. other Asian children with siblings sounds pretty similar to the stereotypes of Millennials - self-absorbed, seeking approval, but combined with a far lesser collaborative instinct. I'm not sure what to think of studies like this, if they really can effectively show a distinction. But it was interesting just the same.
I can't let this review go by without saying that despite the topic, I was still surprised by some of the graphic detail inside this book. Dead bodies, fetuses, blood. It caught me off guard. I think I expected this to be more philosophical and less biological. I'm not sure why I had that impression, but please consider whether that is content you want to bring into your life before reading.
One big issue is that while I typically enjoy memoir and personal essay, I don't think it worked well for the author to share her own fertility issues and Chinese heritage narrative. She is trying to tie her story to the Chinese story, but I felt it diluted the focus of the book. The power of personal narratives to explain facets of the story came from the people she interviewed, heard about, or saw on international news, in the case of Feng Jianmei (I can only humbly recommend not Google image searching this poor woman who was forced to have a late-term abortion in 2012).
Otherwise, I was most interested in some of the offshoot issues that I had not considered - that most Asian countries have had major reductions in birthrate simply through propaganda and education programs, even China prior to the program had cut birthrate in half; the longreaching impact on the tax base and elder care that China will suffer despite the recent reduction of this policy; the exploration into how much of the international adoption of Chinese girls may have been a result of human trafficking (awful); what happens when men outnumber women 129 to 100.
This reminds me of a weird moment where the author points out moments in history caused by an abundance of men, and she includes the Arab Spring, which made me think she assumed that was a negative event, and now I just feel confused.
We talk sometimes at work about how this increased pressure on each "one child," to succeed not just for themselves but for their two parents and four grandparents, can impact our international students from China. As we've seen an increase of Chinese students, this has become a bigger topic. Mei Fong shows an interesting side to the "one child," that of the "little emperor" - her description of the character studies of Chinese children vs. other Asian children with siblings sounds pretty similar to the stereotypes of Millennials - self-absorbed, seeking approval, but combined with a far lesser collaborative instinct. I'm not sure what to think of studies like this, if they really can effectively show a distinction. But it was interesting just the same.
I can't let this review go by without saying that despite the topic, I was still surprised by some of the graphic detail inside this book. Dead bodies, fetuses, blood. It caught me off guard. I think I expected this to be more philosophical and less biological. I'm not sure why I had that impression, but please consider whether that is content you want to bring into your life before reading.
January 3, 2019
Bear in mind that this book is a banned book in China, and the Chinese translation of this nonfictional book only manged to find a home in Taiwan, where the government no longer dictates which books can be published ans read by the people.
People might be confused by the fact that a research book about the one child policy in China can get banned---but guess what...discussing and criticizing the government's policies and the many negative results said policies have caused is actually *still* forbidden in China.
Not to mention, the author pointing out the fact that countless pregnant women were forced to abort their infants, and countless Chinese kids actually got crushed to death in the 2008 great earthquake because the schools and apartments were poorly constructed due to corruption. Plus the tragic death of those kids have brought endless sorrow for their aging parents because many if not most of those kids are the *only* child those parents have, thanks to the one child policy, then no wonder this book get banned, because dictatorship just doesn't want the truth to be leaked to the people!
People might be confused by the fact that a research book about the one child policy in China can get banned---but guess what...discussing and criticizing the government's policies and the many negative results said policies have caused is actually *still* forbidden in China.
Not to mention, the author pointing out the fact that countless pregnant women were forced to abort their infants, and countless Chinese kids actually got crushed to death in the 2008 great earthquake because the schools and apartments were poorly constructed due to corruption. Plus the tragic death of those kids have brought endless sorrow for their aging parents because many if not most of those kids are the *only* child those parents have, thanks to the one child policy, then no wonder this book get banned, because dictatorship just doesn't want the truth to be leaked to the people!
October 25, 2018
I picked this one up today and ended up reading the whole book because it turned out to be completely fascinating and eye-opening. For some reason I was blissfully unaware how very recent the One Child Policy in China was stopped. I had heard of the policy, but I thought naively that it was from a long time ago, however this book showed me just how wrong I was and how much this policy has affected China now.
The story is told in first person from the author's PoV and she's a reporter who meets many people in and outside of China to discuss the various problems that led to the Policy, the implementation and effects, and the lasting legacy or horror of it all. I think the personal element is enhanced by the author's own story being part of the book too and we see her experience with IVF and reporting.
The One Child Policy was initially introduced for the good of the population by the Communist party, but as time went on it became clear that the policy was being implemented badly and many people were having forced abortions and children were being sold to orphanages for overseas adoption. There was a divide between the poorer classes and the rich who could buy their way out of trouble, and there was a distinct lack of female babies who were 'chosen' as the one child. Bachelor communities were created, and many more problems loom ahead of China still in the wake of the policy.
Honestly, this is a completely fascinating and terrifying policy because it's so very close to a dystopian story and it feels like there is a lot in here that is unbelievable. To think that so much of the book is very recent history is shocking and baffling all at once. There are even things mentioned about the 2008 Olympics (which I remember watching) and beyond.
In the end I really enjoyed this and found it informative and entertaining as a read. 4*s from me.
The story is told in first person from the author's PoV and she's a reporter who meets many people in and outside of China to discuss the various problems that led to the Policy, the implementation and effects, and the lasting legacy or horror of it all. I think the personal element is enhanced by the author's own story being part of the book too and we see her experience with IVF and reporting.
The One Child Policy was initially introduced for the good of the population by the Communist party, but as time went on it became clear that the policy was being implemented badly and many people were having forced abortions and children were being sold to orphanages for overseas adoption. There was a divide between the poorer classes and the rich who could buy their way out of trouble, and there was a distinct lack of female babies who were 'chosen' as the one child. Bachelor communities were created, and many more problems loom ahead of China still in the wake of the policy.
Honestly, this is a completely fascinating and terrifying policy because it's so very close to a dystopian story and it feels like there is a lot in here that is unbelievable. To think that so much of the book is very recent history is shocking and baffling all at once. There are even things mentioned about the 2008 Olympics (which I remember watching) and beyond.
In the end I really enjoyed this and found it informative and entertaining as a read. 4*s from me.
June 10, 2019
Recently I read a YA book that looked at how population control might be handled in a utopic society that no longer had any hunger, illness, or natural death, and that book decided that the means would be a sect of official killers called Scythes. Nothing was mentioned about trying to control population in any other way, like birth control or birth limits, etc, and thinking about that made me remember that I had picked up THIS book a couple years ago, and to move it up the queue.
As far as comparisons go, the theme of population control method is about the extent of it between these two books. That one was a completely ridiculous waste of time, and this wasn't. Granted, this wasn't exactly an entertaining read, because it is difficult material to think about, but it was still worth the time and effort to read it.
I work for a company based in China, and I have been to Shanghai several times. So, while I do not at ALL consider myself to be an expert on Chinese culture (I admittedly know very little), I still feel a little closer to this than I probably would have otherwise. I think many of us in the US, if we thought about it at all, considered the one child policy as a suggestion from the government to limit family size. That could not be farther from the truth of what this policy was. I had no ideas the human rights violations that this policy caused.
Enacted in the early 1980s based on modeled population forecasts done by a robotics engineer (?!?), China decreed that going forward, couples were limited to one child in order to drastically reduce the number of people being born and adding to China's population each year. The goal was to grow the economy by reproducing less, with the unsaid subtext being that fewer babies make better, more valuable workers later. You know, since the children that are born would have better opportunities and resources available to them.
What they didn't count on, or care about, apparently, were all of the ways that limiting families to single children would strain system and culture in all of these other areas later on. But, that's really no surprise, because if they were willing to go to the brutal lengths that they did to enforce the policy, (forced sterilizations, forced early and late term abortions, infanticide, coercion, and harsh punitive fines) then it seems unlikely that they would care much about the social ramifications that might show up a few decades in the future, especially if their economic goals were met. On paper, many of these practices were actually illegal. But considering that the enforcement of the policy was left up to local authorities, and it didn't seem to matter HOW they met their goal, of course those things would be done because... who was going to stop them? The government who made the policy?
Citizens in China had a lot of upheaval in their lives starting with Mao's Great Leap Forward, and then the Cultural Revolution just a short time later, and then a couple population control social changes, starting with the "Later, Longer, Fewer" program, which encouraged people to have children later, wait longer in between children, and have fewer of them. When that method wasn't sparking the drastic changes that they really wanted, the One Child policy was rolled out, and the repercussions of that are still ongoing, and will be for a long time to come.
It's great, in theory, to reduce the number of children being added to the population. We humans are resource hogs, and the world's resources are finite. I'm all for people breeding less, and I include myself in that. I think that it's very unlikely that my husband and I will have children, and for a while I felt a way about it, but now I'm at the point where I like my life and freedom, and I realize that I don't want to give that up for a kid.
That being said, our main objective as living beings is to carry on our genetic material. That's the imperative for living things... otherwise they don't live for very long, as a species. In China, it went a lot deeper than that. Their social construct is focused on the family unit. Adults, couples, must have children in order to ensure their own future. Elder care, as in retirement homes or hospices, are (or were) practically unheard of in China, because that was seen as a family's responsibility. For example, in the book it was mentioned that getting healthcare (in the time before the national insurance) was almost impossible for childless people, because if the patient died, who would pay? If the patient had children, then no problem, because it was understood that if the parent could not pay, the child would. Even funeral services were hard to get for people who were childless.
So, now add the OCP into this mix. You have parents who have one child - ALL of their futures are pinned in this one baby. That baby has a lot of responsibility on its little shoulders from the moment its born. To be smart, preferably not a girl (because ya gotta carry on the family name!), successful at school, and later work, so that you can provide for your own future family, and for your parents in their old age.
But if that single child dies... then parents are left not only grieving, but for all intents and purposes, they are ostracized too. Because now they are seen as a burden on the community. It's really so cruel in so many ways... and that's WITHOUT taking into account all of the inhuman methods used to ensure that "family planning" stopped with one.
The way that the policy worked was that each birth had to be certified, essentially. Like a birth certificate and Social Security number all wrapped up together - that certification ensured that the baby was legitimate. If a baby was unplanned, and the parents could not pay the fine to the government to pay for the second child, then the baby did not really exist in the eyes of China. They could not attend school, received no benefits, no health care, could not work, or marry, or bear legitimate children of their own. They were a non-person until their ransom was paid.
There were exceptions to the OCP, of course. If a couple's child died, they could "replace" him or her. (Seriously, the term "you can always have another baby" was apparently quite common, and it just seemed so callous to me how unimportant a citizen's life, or the life of their child, was to those enforcing the policy.) If the first child was a girl, then a couple could apply for permission to try for a boy. If both parents were only children, then they could, if they chose, legally have two. Twins counted as a single birth, and therefore women would opt for fertility treatments in the hopes of conceiving multiples. And there were certain zones where a "Two child" policy was enacted instead of one, as an experiment. Or, of course, you could work for the government, because it seemed that every single person that Mei Fong talked to that was involved in the policy had multiple children. Because of course they did.
This book goes into how corrupt local authorities were in determining fines for "violators". It goes into how different provinces would enforce the rule - with some going so far as to make women take twice weekly pregnancy tests, some others tracking and kidnapping pregnant women known to be in violation of the rule and forcing them to abort, others taking the live babies and basically selling them to Americans via adoption programs.
The book goes into the way that the fertility rates and demographics of China are changing, by all appearances permanently, or at least long term, due to this policy. People were already having fewer children due to the Later, Longer, Fewer policy, and then with the OCP, that ramped up big time. The gov't seemed to have no concerns about long term fertility rates, and kinda had a "if we tell people to breed, they'll breed" attitude about it. So they carried on with the program, and now 30 years later, experts say that that things have gone too far in the other direction, that there aren't enough babies being born to sustain the workforce that would be needed to sustain the economy, but younger people who were born into this are now choosing to only have one child - not out of population control ideals, but because with the added pressure of being the sole caregiver to both parents in their old age, it is too expensive to have more than one child of their own.
For being such a short book, it's less than 300 pages, there is a whole lot packed in. I haven't even touched on a lot of it. Yet it never feels too busy or scattered. It's very well written. I did not really like the reader, Janet Song, though. She sounded stilted and had a weird tone to me, as though she was trying to sound masculine all the time. I can't really describe it, but it did not really work for me. Otherwise, this is a really great book, though it deals with unpleasant (to put it mildly) subject matter. If you are interested in this topic at all - I'd give it a try. It's quite good!
As far as comparisons go, the theme of population control method is about the extent of it between these two books. That one was a completely ridiculous waste of time, and this wasn't. Granted, this wasn't exactly an entertaining read, because it is difficult material to think about, but it was still worth the time and effort to read it.
I work for a company based in China, and I have been to Shanghai several times. So, while I do not at ALL consider myself to be an expert on Chinese culture (I admittedly know very little), I still feel a little closer to this than I probably would have otherwise. I think many of us in the US, if we thought about it at all, considered the one child policy as a suggestion from the government to limit family size. That could not be farther from the truth of what this policy was. I had no ideas the human rights violations that this policy caused.
Enacted in the early 1980s based on modeled population forecasts done by a robotics engineer (?!?), China decreed that going forward, couples were limited to one child in order to drastically reduce the number of people being born and adding to China's population each year. The goal was to grow the economy by reproducing less, with the unsaid subtext being that fewer babies make better, more valuable workers later. You know, since the children that are born would have better opportunities and resources available to them.
What they didn't count on, or care about, apparently, were all of the ways that limiting families to single children would strain system and culture in all of these other areas later on. But, that's really no surprise, because if they were willing to go to the brutal lengths that they did to enforce the policy, (forced sterilizations, forced early and late term abortions, infanticide, coercion, and harsh punitive fines) then it seems unlikely that they would care much about the social ramifications that might show up a few decades in the future, especially if their economic goals were met. On paper, many of these practices were actually illegal. But considering that the enforcement of the policy was left up to local authorities, and it didn't seem to matter HOW they met their goal, of course those things would be done because... who was going to stop them? The government who made the policy?
Citizens in China had a lot of upheaval in their lives starting with Mao's Great Leap Forward, and then the Cultural Revolution just a short time later, and then a couple population control social changes, starting with the "Later, Longer, Fewer" program, which encouraged people to have children later, wait longer in between children, and have fewer of them. When that method wasn't sparking the drastic changes that they really wanted, the One Child policy was rolled out, and the repercussions of that are still ongoing, and will be for a long time to come.
It's great, in theory, to reduce the number of children being added to the population. We humans are resource hogs, and the world's resources are finite. I'm all for people breeding less, and I include myself in that. I think that it's very unlikely that my husband and I will have children, and for a while I felt a way about it, but now I'm at the point where I like my life and freedom, and I realize that I don't want to give that up for a kid.
That being said, our main objective as living beings is to carry on our genetic material. That's the imperative for living things... otherwise they don't live for very long, as a species. In China, it went a lot deeper than that. Their social construct is focused on the family unit. Adults, couples, must have children in order to ensure their own future. Elder care, as in retirement homes or hospices, are (or were) practically unheard of in China, because that was seen as a family's responsibility. For example, in the book it was mentioned that getting healthcare (in the time before the national insurance) was almost impossible for childless people, because if the patient died, who would pay? If the patient had children, then no problem, because it was understood that if the parent could not pay, the child would. Even funeral services were hard to get for people who were childless.
So, now add the OCP into this mix. You have parents who have one child - ALL of their futures are pinned in this one baby. That baby has a lot of responsibility on its little shoulders from the moment its born. To be smart, preferably not a girl (because ya gotta carry on the family name!), successful at school, and later work, so that you can provide for your own future family, and for your parents in their old age.
But if that single child dies... then parents are left not only grieving, but for all intents and purposes, they are ostracized too. Because now they are seen as a burden on the community. It's really so cruel in so many ways... and that's WITHOUT taking into account all of the inhuman methods used to ensure that "family planning" stopped with one.
The way that the policy worked was that each birth had to be certified, essentially. Like a birth certificate and Social Security number all wrapped up together - that certification ensured that the baby was legitimate. If a baby was unplanned, and the parents could not pay the fine to the government to pay for the second child, then the baby did not really exist in the eyes of China. They could not attend school, received no benefits, no health care, could not work, or marry, or bear legitimate children of their own. They were a non-person until their ransom was paid.
There were exceptions to the OCP, of course. If a couple's child died, they could "replace" him or her. (Seriously, the term "you can always have another baby" was apparently quite common, and it just seemed so callous to me how unimportant a citizen's life, or the life of their child, was to those enforcing the policy.) If the first child was a girl, then a couple could apply for permission to try for a boy. If both parents were only children, then they could, if they chose, legally have two. Twins counted as a single birth, and therefore women would opt for fertility treatments in the hopes of conceiving multiples. And there were certain zones where a "Two child" policy was enacted instead of one, as an experiment. Or, of course, you could work for the government, because it seemed that every single person that Mei Fong talked to that was involved in the policy had multiple children. Because of course they did.
This book goes into how corrupt local authorities were in determining fines for "violators". It goes into how different provinces would enforce the rule - with some going so far as to make women take twice weekly pregnancy tests, some others tracking and kidnapping pregnant women known to be in violation of the rule and forcing them to abort, others taking the live babies and basically selling them to Americans via adoption programs.
The book goes into the way that the fertility rates and demographics of China are changing, by all appearances permanently, or at least long term, due to this policy. People were already having fewer children due to the Later, Longer, Fewer policy, and then with the OCP, that ramped up big time. The gov't seemed to have no concerns about long term fertility rates, and kinda had a "if we tell people to breed, they'll breed" attitude about it. So they carried on with the program, and now 30 years later, experts say that that things have gone too far in the other direction, that there aren't enough babies being born to sustain the workforce that would be needed to sustain the economy, but younger people who were born into this are now choosing to only have one child - not out of population control ideals, but because with the added pressure of being the sole caregiver to both parents in their old age, it is too expensive to have more than one child of their own.
For being such a short book, it's less than 300 pages, there is a whole lot packed in. I haven't even touched on a lot of it. Yet it never feels too busy or scattered. It's very well written. I did not really like the reader, Janet Song, though. She sounded stilted and had a weird tone to me, as though she was trying to sound masculine all the time. I can't really describe it, but it did not really work for me. Otherwise, this is a really great book, though it deals with unpleasant (to put it mildly) subject matter. If you are interested in this topic at all - I'd give it a try. It's quite good!
November 12, 2018
This was a really shocking read - I had heard of China's One Child policy before, but I had no idea it was so recently introduced, and I had no idea of the ramifications it had for the country as a whole. This book made me in turns angry and sad, and had me shaking my head in disbelief over and over again. Despite being a piece of non-fiction, it reads like a dystopian novel (Mei Fong even references The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood as an incredibly bleak comparison). I really appreciated the depth that Mei Fong went into when investigating this, and the interviews she conducted were fascinating and odious to read. I also enjoyed the way she weaved her own experiences with fertility struggles into the mix. Overall a fascinating read, and I'm glad I got a chance to read this for Non-Fiction November.
March 26, 2016
3.5 stars - It was really good.
Found most of this one (the first 80%) to be fascinating and informative without ever being dry or slow. Unfortunately I do not have the ebook or physical format (listened to it on audio), so I am unable to pull quotes. Would enjoy visaully re-reading this one in the future to highlight and review a lot of the more interesting segments.
As a childfree by choice woman, the unintended consequences of the one child policy were especially fascinating. The author, and statistics, imply that once Chinese people werebrainwashed taught all of the benefits to having a smaller family, that they are now unable to reverse that train of thought. I was also shocked to see how little of an effect this has had on gender equality in China. The author said something along the lines that due to the demographic gender shift combined with other factors affecting marriage, that fertile women are now a rare commodity, which means they are more valuable than before, but not necessarily more valued.
The ending switches to case studies which wasn't quite as fascinating as the rest of the book, but was still interesting. I did really enjoy the epilogue and the author's pithy comments on being the fun Auntie instead of a mom (yay for Aunties!), but a paragraph later she is a mom, so.... Looking forward to the book club discussion for this one!
Found most of this one (the first 80%) to be fascinating and informative without ever being dry or slow. Unfortunately I do not have the ebook or physical format (listened to it on audio), so I am unable to pull quotes. Would enjoy visaully re-reading this one in the future to highlight and review a lot of the more interesting segments.
As a childfree by choice woman, the unintended consequences of the one child policy were especially fascinating. The author, and statistics, imply that once Chinese people were
The ending switches to case studies which wasn't quite as fascinating as the rest of the book, but was still interesting. I did really enjoy the epilogue and the author's pithy comments on being the fun Auntie instead of a mom (yay for Aunties!), but a paragraph later she is a mom, so.... Looking forward to the book club discussion for this one!
March 8, 2017
One Child was the second book in my imaginary trip to authoritarian states. I began this book immediately after The Girl with Seven Names, and, so, I inevitably contrasted the two books.
I learned much about the Chinese Communist Party’s One Child policy. It is not merely the fact that couples are only allowed one child. It is not merely that China is overpopulated. The government has set up various punishments for people who do not comply: forced abortions, infanticides, forced sterilizations, and ever shifting monetary fines. There are practical and religious consequences for families: who will care for the aging? who will care for the ancestors’ spirits? There are coming economic consequences when considerably fewer young people will be working. Fong even shows the policy’s effect on the White Savior Complex among Americans who desire to adopt Chinese babies.
The simplistic would-be panacea of limiting offspring has far-reaching societal effects.
My problem with the book is that I don’t think Fong liked her subjects very much. Her tone is often condescending when she describes them. Whereas Hyeonseo Lee obviously loved her compatriots despite the Kim regime, Fong disdains the Chinese people. Early in the book, she publishes grieving parents’ photos, and, when the husband requests that she doesn’t use the photo, she tells him it is too late. I gave her the benefit of the doubt then: perhaps she had already had his permission, which he sought to rescind. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that she approached the everyday Chinese people whom she interviewed as though she thought them ignorant and, as she related her experiences during IVF, money-hungry. She was very unsympathetic.
Fong also came across as self-centered. She descanted on gender bias. A worthy theme. I don’t argue otherwise. However, she focuses on her own family’s gender bias: her experience as a woman born in Malaysia with four sisters. There’s almost a full chapter on her own experience. Then another chapter on her in vitro fertilization. I wasn’t expecting to read Fong’s memoir.
If the book had been longer, I would not quibble over Fong’s discourses. However, the book is less than 200 pages, which is not enough to sufficiently cover Fong’s thesis. The scope of her book (kinship, economics, history, religion, sexuality, biology, government — essentially, all of Chinese culture in the 20th century) demands a longer book and a sympathetic writer.
Although I learned from the book, I wish it had been better.
I learned much about the Chinese Communist Party’s One Child policy. It is not merely the fact that couples are only allowed one child. It is not merely that China is overpopulated. The government has set up various punishments for people who do not comply: forced abortions, infanticides, forced sterilizations, and ever shifting monetary fines. There are practical and religious consequences for families: who will care for the aging? who will care for the ancestors’ spirits? There are coming economic consequences when considerably fewer young people will be working. Fong even shows the policy’s effect on the White Savior Complex among Americans who desire to adopt Chinese babies.
The simplistic would-be panacea of limiting offspring has far-reaching societal effects.
My problem with the book is that I don’t think Fong liked her subjects very much. Her tone is often condescending when she describes them. Whereas Hyeonseo Lee obviously loved her compatriots despite the Kim regime, Fong disdains the Chinese people. Early in the book, she publishes grieving parents’ photos, and, when the husband requests that she doesn’t use the photo, she tells him it is too late. I gave her the benefit of the doubt then: perhaps she had already had his permission, which he sought to rescind. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that she approached the everyday Chinese people whom she interviewed as though she thought them ignorant and, as she related her experiences during IVF, money-hungry. She was very unsympathetic.
Fong also came across as self-centered. She descanted on gender bias. A worthy theme. I don’t argue otherwise. However, she focuses on her own family’s gender bias: her experience as a woman born in Malaysia with four sisters. There’s almost a full chapter on her own experience. Then another chapter on her in vitro fertilization. I wasn’t expecting to read Fong’s memoir.
If the book had been longer, I would not quibble over Fong’s discourses. However, the book is less than 200 pages, which is not enough to sufficiently cover Fong’s thesis. The scope of her book (kinship, economics, history, religion, sexuality, biology, government — essentially, all of Chinese culture in the 20th century) demands a longer book and a sympathetic writer.
Although I learned from the book, I wish it had been better.
January 11, 2016
This could have been a dry demographic study, but instead it's a powerfully-written, and poignant, account of perhaps the largest social experiment in human history. Mei Fong is a journalist, and the writing is concise and dramatic, but she also identifies with the story herself, as she is seeking to conceive a child as she explores a China that is coping, 35 years on, with a limited-child policy. She shows us how it has affected, has distorted, Chinese society, economics and future. The policy has succeeded: perhaps 100 million Chinese are missing, and Chinese society now might prefer to retain one-child families even if the central government realizes it's time to reverse the policy.
She tells us about the policy's collateral effects: its often-brutal and corrupt enforcement; the forced abortions; the implications as a large working-age population becomes elderly and needs supporting; its collision with the local-registration (hukou) system and rural-urban tensions; the single-child "Little Emperor" phenomenon. We see how this has exacerbated the Chinese preference for boy babies and the discarding of infant girls -- and the resulting imbalance and the many unwed bachelors. We learn of a sex-doll industry. We learn of the trade in unwanted babies, unexpected as it seems. The policy has widened social inequality and has profoundly changed the Chinese mindset, she tells us.
She begins, and centers much of the story, with the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which hit ill-built schools especially hard. We learn just how devastating such deaths would be for families with one child, now lost.
Given China's economic and political importance in this century, this policy may very well affect its course, or deflect it. It's also a lesson in population control in this crowded century, and in what radical social policy can do. The policy worked, she tells us. That's the problem.
She tells us about the policy's collateral effects: its often-brutal and corrupt enforcement; the forced abortions; the implications as a large working-age population becomes elderly and needs supporting; its collision with the local-registration (hukou) system and rural-urban tensions; the single-child "Little Emperor" phenomenon. We see how this has exacerbated the Chinese preference for boy babies and the discarding of infant girls -- and the resulting imbalance and the many unwed bachelors. We learn of a sex-doll industry. We learn of the trade in unwanted babies, unexpected as it seems. The policy has widened social inequality and has profoundly changed the Chinese mindset, she tells us.
She begins, and centers much of the story, with the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which hit ill-built schools especially hard. We learn just how devastating such deaths would be for families with one child, now lost.
Given China's economic and political importance in this century, this policy may very well affect its course, or deflect it. It's also a lesson in population control in this crowded century, and in what radical social policy can do. The policy worked, she tells us. That's the problem.
March 29, 2016
Mei Fong tells of her personal quest to have a child as she covers the many issues around China’s one child policy. She is at her best in writing about the social changes that have resulted from 35+ years of this policy.
She covers how the policy came about, the bureaucracy that has developed to promote and enforce it, the difficulty of getting and interpreting statistics, the impact on the resulting imbalanced male and female population, overseas adoption, the issues of aging, and how couples deal with infertility. There is a touching story of her own roots: her grandfather had 16 sons and her father 5 daughters.
The chapters on marriage and dating were the most interesting. US news has covered what the imbalance of men to women (now 114:100 down from a high of 121:100) has meant for men (the importation of brides and sex trafficking) but not what it has meant for women. You would think that with the surplus of males, females have good choices in the marriage market, but the men, while desirous of marriage, want marriage on their terms. They want someone to help with the mortgage more than a partner. They don’t want a woman over 25, nor a partner earning more money. Their parents pressure them for a daughter-in-law who will take care of them. “Confucian Seminars” which sermonize on the role of woman as a sacrificing helpmate are popular.
Another little discussed problem is that of infertility in China. The author’s experience is evidence that it might result, as suggested, from pollution. The US is a preferred place for treatment or finding surrogate mothers and an industry has developed around it. Fong discusses the issues of cost/medical insurance and US citizenship for the resulting child.
I almost didn’t stay with the book which is the reason I give this 4 stars not 5. It begins with an attitude that purports to be even handed, but on almost every page disparaged the one child policy as unnecessary. She showed the human cost of the policy leaving out the human cost of not having the policy. She notes other countries’ birth rates are voluntarily low as were two counties in China with no discussion of the social or economic differences that made them so. The attitude also showed in small ways, such as the quotes she chose, the worst of them being (p. vii) “workforce shrinkage happened faster than expected… driving up wages and contributing to global inflationary pressures” as though China should suffer overpopulation to keep worldwide prices down. She discredited (p. 53) the statisticians who made projections on which the policy was made because (p.53) “many … didn’t even have access to personal computers at the time” which was 1979. Fortunately the sections on China today, as a result of the policy, are free of this attitude.
March 21, 2022
4.5 stars rounded to 5. A fascinating look at how the one-child policy changed society in China. The policy began in 1980 and has created a whole generation of singletons. When the policy was finally relaxed to allow two children, it was too late. Society had changed. Most couples still opted for one child, to enjoy their freedom and the bounties of a booming economy.
The biggest problem now is the enormous aging population with not enough young people to care for them or add to the government coffers. If your single child dies, you are not even allowed into a nursing home as there is no one to pay the costs.
Which makes this morning's news all the more poignant -- a plane crash in Southern China, with families meeting their loved ones at the airport only to learn that the plane is down, along with their only child.
When I was in China in 1988, I saw a lot of single children in the parks, often with their grandparents. At that time, I didn't make the connection. Now I understand.
A very enlightening book and highly recommended.
The biggest problem now is the enormous aging population with not enough young people to care for them or add to the government coffers. If your single child dies, you are not even allowed into a nursing home as there is no one to pay the costs.
Which makes this morning's news all the more poignant -- a plane crash in Southern China, with families meeting their loved ones at the airport only to learn that the plane is down, along with their only child.
When I was in China in 1988, I saw a lot of single children in the parks, often with their grandparents. At that time, I didn't make the connection. Now I understand.
A very enlightening book and highly recommended.
November 15, 2018
4.75⭐️
“China’s one-child policy was crafted by military scientists, who believed any regrettable side effects could be swiftly mitigated and women’s fertility rates easily adjusted. China’s economists, sociologists, and demographers, who might have injected more wisdom and balance, were largely left out of the decision making, as the Cultural Revolution had starved social scientists of resources and prestige. Only the nation’s defense scientists were untouched by the purges, and they proved not the best judges of human behavior.”
Absolutely fascinating.
“China’s one-child policy was crafted by military scientists, who believed any regrettable side effects could be swiftly mitigated and women’s fertility rates easily adjusted. China’s economists, sociologists, and demographers, who might have injected more wisdom and balance, were largely left out of the decision making, as the Cultural Revolution had starved social scientists of resources and prestige. Only the nation’s defense scientists were untouched by the purges, and they proved not the best judges of human behavior.”
Absolutely fascinating.
February 8, 2017
A sobering look at what happens when a national policy succeeds - and the far-reaching and unintended consequences of that "success".
The pre-cursor to the one-child policy was the 'Later, Longer, Fewer' campaign - asking people to wait for marriage later, longer spaces in between children, and fewer children altogether - and in the late 1970s this was deemed a successful campaign - the average woman in China went from having six children to three. Then in 1980, the campaign went further - the "one-child policy" was enacted to grow its per-capita GDP rapidly.
...and that worked. But the population control campaigns didn't go away - or cease to exist.
Thirty five years of this policy is now played out in every part of Chinese society - from the way an unexpected and tragic disaster (the Sichuan earthquake in 2008) made scores of people childless, to the well-known sex-selective infanticides, abortions, and adoptions in a culture where sons are valued higher. This sex selection has very serious ramifications now where single men outnumber women in some regions 10:1.
Mei Fong, herself an 'undesired daughter', writes with heart - but also a very critical eye. Very heavy topics are covered with grace - both sharing personal stories of people she meets in her time as a China correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, and her own family story.
My Western lens and perspective was very clear while reading this book - I couldn't even imagine something like this proposed in the West. It's a very important book - and gave me a glimpse more understanding into the history and culture of modern China.
In China, population growth took a great leap forward from 540 million in 1949 to over 800 million twenty years later... China had been practicing population curbs in fits and starts since the 1950s, mainly through legislating early marriage, as well as distributing condoms and IUDs.
The pre-cursor to the one-child policy was the 'Later, Longer, Fewer' campaign - asking people to wait for marriage later, longer spaces in between children, and fewer children altogether - and in the late 1970s this was deemed a successful campaign - the average woman in China went from having six children to three. Then in 1980, the campaign went further - the "one-child policy" was enacted to grow its per-capita GDP rapidly.
...and that worked. But the population control campaigns didn't go away - or cease to exist.
Thirty five years of this policy is now played out in every part of Chinese society - from the way an unexpected and tragic disaster (the Sichuan earthquake in 2008) made scores of people childless, to the well-known sex-selective infanticides, abortions, and adoptions in a culture where sons are valued higher. This sex selection has very serious ramifications now where single men outnumber women in some regions 10:1.
Mei Fong, herself an 'undesired daughter', writes with heart - but also a very critical eye. Very heavy topics are covered with grace - both sharing personal stories of people she meets in her time as a China correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, and her own family story.
My Western lens and perspective was very clear while reading this book - I couldn't even imagine something like this proposed in the West. It's a very important book - and gave me a glimpse more understanding into the history and culture of modern China.
January 25, 2023
One Child looks at the far-reaching consequences of China's 1980 policy for families to have one child, in an attempt to stem population growth that the nation couldn't sustain, already having endured famines and starvation. Yet, as with so many ivory-tower political decisions, the disastrous consequences occurred in women's bodies.
Fong was a journalist in China for years, being of Chinese descent born in Malaysia--the fifth daughter in a sonless family. Each chapter feels like a different article, considering things like international adoption and aging/palliative care that are affected by the policy. Fong interviewed widely and provides an array of perspectives. At times I wished the chapters connected more smoothly, though each one tells an important, and often surprising, effect of the one-child policy.
It struck me that the one-child generation, from 1980 to 2015, is my own generation. It is difficult for me to grasp just how different our worlds are because of that policy. Yet, they are my global peers, and I am grateful to Fong for contributing toward telling their stories.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a non-academic investigation of the one-child policy, though with some caveats, especially for anyone who has been adopted from China. The epilogue is luminous and places the whole book in perspective.
Content warnings: violence against women ; violence against children ; mentions of elder abuse; suicide
Fong was a journalist in China for years, being of Chinese descent born in Malaysia--the fifth daughter in a sonless family. Each chapter feels like a different article, considering things like international adoption and aging/palliative care that are affected by the policy. Fong interviewed widely and provides an array of perspectives. At times I wished the chapters connected more smoothly, though each one tells an important, and often surprising, effect of the one-child policy.
It struck me that the one-child generation, from 1980 to 2015, is my own generation. It is difficult for me to grasp just how different our worlds are because of that policy. Yet, they are my global peers, and I am grateful to Fong for contributing toward telling their stories.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a non-academic investigation of the one-child policy, though with some caveats, especially for anyone who has been adopted from China. The epilogue is luminous and places the whole book in perspective.
Content warnings: violence against women ; violence against children ; mentions of elder abuse; suicide
April 2, 2021
Hao si buru tousheng. - “Better to struggle to live on, than die a good death.”
I’ve never been so curious about China until this pandemic.
This book is very intriguing and at the same time heart breaking. The author exposed the dark side of one child policy. I heard about one child policy in China before but I never thought there's something more especially how it is discussed and explained in this book. It is also described the lives of elderly rural folk in China. It's kinda sad to know their stories.
“In the end, perhaps the greatest damage inflicted by the one-child policy is how it forced people to think rationally—perhaps too rationally—about parenthood, a great leap into the unknown with an infinite capacity to stretch our understanding of what it means to live and love.”
Recommended book to anyone who is curious about China.
I’ve never been so curious about China until this pandemic.
This book is very intriguing and at the same time heart breaking. The author exposed the dark side of one child policy. I heard about one child policy in China before but I never thought there's something more especially how it is discussed and explained in this book. It is also described the lives of elderly rural folk in China. It's kinda sad to know their stories.
“In the end, perhaps the greatest damage inflicted by the one-child policy is how it forced people to think rationally—perhaps too rationally—about parenthood, a great leap into the unknown with an infinite capacity to stretch our understanding of what it means to live and love.”
Recommended book to anyone who is curious about China.
June 9, 2016
This was a beautifully written investigation of how the policy came to be adapted in China in the late 1970s and exploration of its far-reaching and unanticipated consequences today. What really held me was that it's also a fascinating story with drama and interesting characters and unexpected settings...like a visit to a company that makes blow-up dolls for "bachelors". In a country with a giant gender imbalance--there are 30 million more males than females of marriageable age now--you'd think that women, being such a sought-after commodity, would enjoy great social power but the book proves this, and many other Western assumptions about Chinese modern culture, to be wrong.
December 17, 2016
'One Child' is probably the most insightful book about China's brutal population-control program. Started with a 'vital-for-development' pitch, it went on to wreck havoc in the lives of millions of Chinese and did irreplaceable damage to their sex ratio.
Fong writes about the horrors that went into implementing the program and the lasting effects it has had on Chinese economy and the way of life.
Fong writes about the horrors that went into implementing the program and the lasting effects it has had on Chinese economy and the way of life.
November 22, 2016
An account of what may possibly be the world's most extreme social experiment in modern times, ONE CHILD tells the story of China's one-child-policy, that was enforced in 1980 as a drastic family planning initiative to arrest its exploding population. The policy was phased out last year, in 2015, and this book takes a look at what this policy has really meant for the people of China, how it was implemented, and how it will take a long time for the country to recover from its impact.
Two of the most striking emotions that I have associated with China from whatever I have read and heard in the past, and more strongly through this book now, are fear and control. The way the Communist Party and government system control the country down to the last and remotest person is disturbing. Several instances in the book show how people were bound by the one-child rule, breaking which brought about a slew of fines and punishments, economically debilitating an already poor population and leaving them with nearly no choices of a fair recourse. It was non-negotiable.
The book shows how the policy has affected not just the parents who were forced to adhere to it, but also its impact on the children who were born as the one-child generation. There are horrifying instances of in-human forced late-term abortions, and sad tales of parents losing their only child to natural disasters - like the 2008 Sichuan earthquake that claimed the lives of thousands of children, who were at school at the time, due to the poor quality of their school buildings. In the aftermath of such incidents, the desperation of parents scrambling to register themselves to have another child, as they would be eligible again, is heartbreaking.
But there is also a very economic and pragmatic reason driving them to make such desperate scrambles to have children. As the author states, everything in Chinese society is geared towards marriage and family, and being unmarried or childless placed you very low on the societal totem pole. (There are labels like "leftover women" for those who remain unmarried after 25, and "bare branches" for men who are also unmarried after the designated ripe age. There are "bachelor villages" because of an extremely lopsided gender ratio, that was further exacerbated by the one-child policy, which encouraged people to be even more choosy about having their "one-child" as a boy.)
People who broke the one-child rule or did not have any children, could not claim several of the benefits that the state offers - they simply became ineligible. Without any progeny, people found it difficult to buy even burial plots for themselves. Also, as the ratio of the older generation in China increased, and with expensive hospice care, having a child to look after you in old age became a critical requirement and investment.
Other discriminating policies like hukou, which prevents migrant populations from overpopulating cities by making them ineligible to government benefits that a resident would normally get, show how difficult life is in China for the economically weaker class.
There is a very interesting section early in the book, that talks about how the Olympics were also one area for the authorities to exercise population control to bring glory to the country - - where selective breeding to raise more talented humans was a central part of the elite sports program.
Held very soon after the devastating Sichuan earthquake, the 2008 Beijing Olympics were China's opportunity to dazzle the world, and they likely did. But some of the facts about how they did this has been an eye-opener - from spray painting the city's dry grass an emerald green, to deploying 25 control stations to fend off rain clouds approaching the Bird's Nest stadium, to the computer generated imagery of the fireworks one saw on TV - - it shows how China can and will go to any extent to paint a picture of perfection.
Ironically, after three decades of making the one-child policy mandatory, the Communist Party is now having trouble making people choose to have two children - With such high parenting and child rearing costs, most middle-class Chinese now prefer to have only one child.
There's a lot more that the book covers that is interesting, insightful and informative and I would recommend everyone to read it, just to know a little bit more about this intriguing land of smoke and mirrors and the struggles of its people.
Two of the most striking emotions that I have associated with China from whatever I have read and heard in the past, and more strongly through this book now, are fear and control. The way the Communist Party and government system control the country down to the last and remotest person is disturbing. Several instances in the book show how people were bound by the one-child rule, breaking which brought about a slew of fines and punishments, economically debilitating an already poor population and leaving them with nearly no choices of a fair recourse. It was non-negotiable.
The book shows how the policy has affected not just the parents who were forced to adhere to it, but also its impact on the children who were born as the one-child generation. There are horrifying instances of in-human forced late-term abortions, and sad tales of parents losing their only child to natural disasters - like the 2008 Sichuan earthquake that claimed the lives of thousands of children, who were at school at the time, due to the poor quality of their school buildings. In the aftermath of such incidents, the desperation of parents scrambling to register themselves to have another child, as they would be eligible again, is heartbreaking.
But there is also a very economic and pragmatic reason driving them to make such desperate scrambles to have children. As the author states, everything in Chinese society is geared towards marriage and family, and being unmarried or childless placed you very low on the societal totem pole. (There are labels like "leftover women" for those who remain unmarried after 25, and "bare branches" for men who are also unmarried after the designated ripe age. There are "bachelor villages" because of an extremely lopsided gender ratio, that was further exacerbated by the one-child policy, which encouraged people to be even more choosy about having their "one-child" as a boy.)
People who broke the one-child rule or did not have any children, could not claim several of the benefits that the state offers - they simply became ineligible. Without any progeny, people found it difficult to buy even burial plots for themselves. Also, as the ratio of the older generation in China increased, and with expensive hospice care, having a child to look after you in old age became a critical requirement and investment.
Other discriminating policies like hukou, which prevents migrant populations from overpopulating cities by making them ineligible to government benefits that a resident would normally get, show how difficult life is in China for the economically weaker class.
There is a very interesting section early in the book, that talks about how the Olympics were also one area for the authorities to exercise population control to bring glory to the country - - where selective breeding to raise more talented humans was a central part of the elite sports program.
Held very soon after the devastating Sichuan earthquake, the 2008 Beijing Olympics were China's opportunity to dazzle the world, and they likely did. But some of the facts about how they did this has been an eye-opener - from spray painting the city's dry grass an emerald green, to deploying 25 control stations to fend off rain clouds approaching the Bird's Nest stadium, to the computer generated imagery of the fireworks one saw on TV - - it shows how China can and will go to any extent to paint a picture of perfection.
Ironically, after three decades of making the one-child policy mandatory, the Communist Party is now having trouble making people choose to have two children - With such high parenting and child rearing costs, most middle-class Chinese now prefer to have only one child.
There's a lot more that the book covers that is interesting, insightful and informative and I would recommend everyone to read it, just to know a little bit more about this intriguing land of smoke and mirrors and the struggles of its people.
April 25, 2018
A readable but disturbing account of the stripping away of the human rights of millions of Chinese citizens via the imposition of the Government's One Child Policy (1980-2015).This book caused me to question the dominant role exercised by China in world affairs in 2017 and wonder if we should be more wary of its power.
December 15, 2015
I marked up my Advanced Reader Copy with all sorts of notations and comments. I found so much of the information Fong includes fascinating, much of it also frightening. Here's a small bunch of what jumped out at me; China already has more than 40% of the world's Parkinson sufferers and it's predicted that number will grow to 60% in the next fifteen years. In 1996 the National People's Congress passed a law requiring children to support their aged parents. In 2013 Beijing followed up with a law requiring children of elderly parents to visit frequently. Many nursing homes will not admit shidu couples (parents who lost their only child) because they have no progeny to authorize treatment or act as payment guarantors. Cemeteries won't sell shidu couples burial plots because they fear that there won't be anyone to pay for future upkeep. Children who are not authorized to be born are not given a hukou or household registration. People without hukous cannot legally hold a job or get married. There are an estimated 13 million people who live as undocumented children without hukous. Fewer than 1% of China's schools provide sex education. Couples who had children out side of "the plan" were forced to pay fines. Fines could range from between two and ten times the offenders annual household income. Fines weren't restricted to having out of plan children, women were fined for living with a man out of wedlock, for not using contraception (even if it didn't lead to pregnancy) or for not attending regular pregnancy check ups. Some women were forced to line up twice a month for pregnancy tests and publicly pee in cups. This is some crazy s hit and it only gets worse. Included are stories of forced abortions, infanticide and kidnapping. Fong presents a frightening eye-opening look at all the different ways China's one child rule has impacted it's culture.
Thank you to the Amazon Vine Program and the publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the Advance Reader Copy.
Thank you to the Amazon Vine Program and the publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the Advance Reader Copy.
December 28, 2015
With China in the news so often these days, and with the recent announcement that the country has now rescinded its One Child Policy, the timing on this particular book could not have been better. Particularly since the author is herself Chinese and lived in Asia for many years, her perspective is a much more fully-fleshed one than most.
Overall, I found the book fascinating and heartbreaking in equal measure. The stories of forced abortions, most have heard. The fact that there are vastly more men than women, also a known fact. But it's the details in this book that really stand out. What happens when people follow the law and then their only child is killed, leaving no one to help take care of them? What about the required sterilizations on women after they've had their allotted child? Or the crazy marriage market where families are paying thousands of dollars as a bride-price - and many of them losing that when the bride disappears? And frankly, as posited on the book, what happens when you've "taught" your populace so well that they are reluctant to change?
So many ramifications tied to one mass social experiment where the ends will not be able to justify the means. It remains to be seen exactly where China will go from here, but unfortunately, much of the damage is already done.
Overall, I found the book fascinating and heartbreaking in equal measure. The stories of forced abortions, most have heard. The fact that there are vastly more men than women, also a known fact. But it's the details in this book that really stand out. What happens when people follow the law and then their only child is killed, leaving no one to help take care of them? What about the required sterilizations on women after they've had their allotted child? Or the crazy marriage market where families are paying thousands of dollars as a bride-price - and many of them losing that when the bride disappears? And frankly, as posited on the book, what happens when you've "taught" your populace so well that they are reluctant to change?
So many ramifications tied to one mass social experiment where the ends will not be able to justify the means. It remains to be seen exactly where China will go from here, but unfortunately, much of the damage is already done.
April 11, 2021
4 stars for the fluidly edited text. Reading nonfiction with such ease means that a lot of invisible efforts were poured into it. I love Mei Fong's simple yet forthcoming style.
2 stars for the imbalanced account. Mei Fong is obviously writing for a White + Liberal audiences. There would have been much more breadth to this account if the author could balance the POVs. And there would have been much more depth to this thesis too if the author could carry some insights from economic model analysis (farming -> production -> service -> tech) in China which practically happened in less than 40 years into the book. Instead, the author's rhetoric came off as very American, one-sided, subjective and painfully repetitive in dishing out judgments. There should exist an overarching analytical framework to this reporting for it to be truly valuable. I don't think I will be picking this book from my shelf in the future for any references I thought I would need, that's what I am saying.
That said, I am looking forward to seeing Mei Fong mature. Writing a nonfiction book is very different from writing an article, and One Child was her transitory work. I will be on the lookout for her next book.
2 stars for the imbalanced account. Mei Fong is obviously writing for a White + Liberal audiences. There would have been much more breadth to this account if the author could balance the POVs. And there would have been much more depth to this thesis too if the author could carry some insights from economic model analysis (farming -> production -> service -> tech) in China which practically happened in less than 40 years into the book. Instead, the author's rhetoric came off as very American, one-sided, subjective and painfully repetitive in dishing out judgments. There should exist an overarching analytical framework to this reporting for it to be truly valuable. I don't think I will be picking this book from my shelf in the future for any references I thought I would need, that's what I am saying.
That said, I am looking forward to seeing Mei Fong mature. Writing a nonfiction book is very different from writing an article, and One Child was her transitory work. I will be on the lookout for her next book.
April 2, 2020
One Child: The Story of China's Most Radical Experiment by Mei Fong is a look at more aspects of this government enforced policy than you would expect. Besides the obvious major imbalance between boys and girls (130 boys for every 100 girls) because of the cultural preference for boys, China finds themselves with many potential lifetime bachelors who can never find a mate. Then there are fraud schemes where families with a girl ask and receive a large cash payment to marry their daughter who marries and the shortly after runs away to do it again. In a culture that expects children to take care of their aging parents, it falls on the one child. Although the government relented after three decades and now allows two children, there is still a preference for males. The author being Chinese allows her to really go into a lot of details about these facts and more including the fines and prison time that can be handed down for having unauthorized children, rewards for those who turn in their friends and neighbors, and other shocking details. I felt like I was reading an alternate version of 1984. Beware of too much control by your government!
March 8, 2022
This book was fascinating.
I had no idea of the large widespread effects of the one child policy.
This put the policy to tangeable numbers and figures and I found it very eye opening.
Would recommend to learn more about the effects.
4.2/5
I had no idea of the large widespread effects of the one child policy.
This put the policy to tangeable numbers and figures and I found it very eye opening.
Would recommend to learn more about the effects.
4.2/5
July 4, 2016
Wow, what a fantastic book, it opened my eyes to so many things that have happened in China's history that I never dreamed could happen to and within a country. Everyone should read this!!
December 30, 2021
Thoughts
There was a time, long back, when in high school, I was asked to present an elocution in regards to the population control in India, its benefits vs shortcomings. Coming off the last vestiges of Indira Gandhi’s form of forced sterilization a few decades prior, as well as the renewed government campaign of family planning, the general consensus was that an increase in population is detrimental to the nation’s burgeoning economy.
China’s one child policy, as taught to us in school, through the rose tinted lenses of social studies, was a major achievement implemented by the communist government to control their population. India, with its myriad of religious, cultural and socioeconomic restraints was not a place where a similar system could be implemented.
The fledgling naïve political observer in me, had lamented how India was unable to implement such decisive and successful programs aimed towards a better future. If I happen to find that little twerp today, I’d pick him up, put him over my lap, and beat his ass black and blue.
India might’ve dodged a bullet in regards to this one, if the current Frankenstein monster that is China's population pyramid and its gender imbalance is anything to go by. A good example of what happens, when the leadership are a bunch of ill informed buffoons blind to their faults. Those who got that position by mere vice of sycophancy and cronyism, and are put in charge of determining the lives of a billion people. With no accountability, no checks & balances to concern themselves with, If I may add.
Regarding the Book:
One child, The Story of China's most radical experiment, by Mei Fong, is as the title indicates detailing the One child policy enacted by ccp in the 1980s as a means of population control. The problem arose, because this policy, which affected the lives of over a billion people, was put into place with little forethought or research, not by sociologists, economists or other experts in the field of anthropology. But rather by politicians and rocket scientists, who didn’t know a damn about the subject, but had the arrogance to assume they did.
And that was just the beginning. The book details the ramifications of this ill begotten nationwide program, including the forced sterilization and abortion of millions of women, sometimes as late as 9 months into their pregnancy. Then there is the infant (mostly female) feticide committed by families desperate for a male child. As well as the expected corruption and exploitation of vulnerable groups of parents by government officials, who often inflict inhumane punishments on them, in form of penalties and unsafe abortions, either due to their fanatical adherence to the dictates of the party, or trying to extort money in form of fines and bribes.
The ccp often proudly quotes that through the implementation of the policy, they had caused the death of over 400 million infants (Not their exact words, but might as well be). Independent sources call this figure vastly exaggerated, but even taking a realistic matrix, it is estimated that close to 200 million births were prevented in china thanks to this policy.
Ramifications of such a radical measure, is being felt by the generation of chinese alive today, most of whom live in a one child household. A skewed system which places an immense burden on the current adult generation of china, needing them to take care of both their parents and grandparents, twice that number in case of couples. All of this resulted in a dangerously skewed population pyramid, and one that is aging fast, and a nation that is looking to a bleak future, where the number of retirees outnumber the viable working populace.
Other consequences are not as apparent. Growing up in a one child household, chinese children grow up pampered and utterly ill equipped to face the competitive adult world. Colloquially referred to as china’s ‘Little Emperors’, the individuals of this generation have an inordinate amount of familial expectations placed on them, in terms of marriage and career, and many often wilt under the pressure.
Further complicating their life is china’s drastic gender imbalance with too few women of marriageable age. It is estimated that, in the near future, tens of millions of chinese men will be forced to a life of bachelorhood, unable to marry and carry on their genetic line, they are referred to as the ‘Bare branches’ of society.
Not that the demand for brides has empowered chinese women to any end. In an increasingly patriarchal system, women are valuable like rare commodities, but are rarely valued as individuals, often expected to play second fiddle to their husbands, and play the housewife. This isn’t helped by the popular directives from the ccp women’s association who have come to call unmarried women in their late twenties, by the derogatory term of ‘leftover women’ (剩女)
Some more fatalistic ramifications of the policy come into play in times of natural disasters. During the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which claimed the lives of thousands, including a large number of children, a number of families found themselves facing the prospect of extinction, as well as an old age with no one to support them, as well as the social stigma of being childless couples. All the while, their government was more concerned with covering up the structurally unstable ‘tofu-dreg’ constructions which exacerbated the deaths, especially in badly built schools. 2008 was if one remembers the year of the chinese Olympics, and the party wouldn’t allow something as trivial as the death of children to taint their grand ceremony in beijing.
One child, forced abortions, and sterilizations, have left the chinese people a shortfall in terms of viable progeny. Today, with advances in personalized fertility medicine, the affluent sections of the populace, can avail to have surrogate pregnancies outside of china, with the added caveat of being able to choose desirable traits in their progeny. So in china, not only do the rich have more money, resources and comforts, they can also push out the poor in terms of having better children, or any children at all.
While for those who belong to the middle class and lower strata of society, bar a few exceptions, they are the ones who have to adhere to the draconian measures and consequences of the one child policy. Even adoption is denied for them, as ill befitting of a so called communist regime, china has managed to commercialize even infant adoptions. With a large number of wealthy foreign parents looking to adopt children from china, it has resulted in the growth of child kidnap and trafficking rings, centered around orphanages, and local officials. As if to aid such criminals, china’s adoption laws are exceedingly discriminating against domestic couples, favoring the richer foreign couples.
Even though it has been mentioned ad nauseum at this point, current day china is increasingly shaping up to be an abominable Frankenstein cross, between 1984 & The Brave new world. What the future holds, with an increasingly belligerent chinese regime, with its litany of burgeoning problems, is anyone’s speculation.
But, the book is definitely worth your while, to be more knowledgeable about the inner workings of the chinese society, at least through the lens of the one child policy.
There was a time, long back, when in high school, I was asked to present an elocution in regards to the population control in India, its benefits vs shortcomings. Coming off the last vestiges of Indira Gandhi’s form of forced sterilization a few decades prior, as well as the renewed government campaign of family planning, the general consensus was that an increase in population is detrimental to the nation’s burgeoning economy.
China’s one child policy, as taught to us in school, through the rose tinted lenses of social studies, was a major achievement implemented by the communist government to control their population. India, with its myriad of religious, cultural and socioeconomic restraints was not a place where a similar system could be implemented.
The fledgling naïve political observer in me, had lamented how India was unable to implement such decisive and successful programs aimed towards a better future. If I happen to find that little twerp today, I’d pick him up, put him over my lap, and beat his ass black and blue.
India might’ve dodged a bullet in regards to this one, if the current Frankenstein monster that is China's population pyramid and its gender imbalance is anything to go by. A good example of what happens, when the leadership are a bunch of ill informed buffoons blind to their faults. Those who got that position by mere vice of sycophancy and cronyism, and are put in charge of determining the lives of a billion people. With no accountability, no checks & balances to concern themselves with, If I may add.
Regarding the Book:
One child, The Story of China's most radical experiment, by Mei Fong, is as the title indicates detailing the One child policy enacted by ccp in the 1980s as a means of population control. The problem arose, because this policy, which affected the lives of over a billion people, was put into place with little forethought or research, not by sociologists, economists or other experts in the field of anthropology. But rather by politicians and rocket scientists, who didn’t know a damn about the subject, but had the arrogance to assume they did.
And that was just the beginning. The book details the ramifications of this ill begotten nationwide program, including the forced sterilization and abortion of millions of women, sometimes as late as 9 months into their pregnancy. Then there is the infant (mostly female) feticide committed by families desperate for a male child. As well as the expected corruption and exploitation of vulnerable groups of parents by government officials, who often inflict inhumane punishments on them, in form of penalties and unsafe abortions, either due to their fanatical adherence to the dictates of the party, or trying to extort money in form of fines and bribes.
The ccp often proudly quotes that through the implementation of the policy, they had caused the death of over 400 million infants (Not their exact words, but might as well be). Independent sources call this figure vastly exaggerated, but even taking a realistic matrix, it is estimated that close to 200 million births were prevented in china thanks to this policy.
Ramifications of such a radical measure, is being felt by the generation of chinese alive today, most of whom live in a one child household. A skewed system which places an immense burden on the current adult generation of china, needing them to take care of both their parents and grandparents, twice that number in case of couples. All of this resulted in a dangerously skewed population pyramid, and one that is aging fast, and a nation that is looking to a bleak future, where the number of retirees outnumber the viable working populace.
Other consequences are not as apparent. Growing up in a one child household, chinese children grow up pampered and utterly ill equipped to face the competitive adult world. Colloquially referred to as china’s ‘Little Emperors’, the individuals of this generation have an inordinate amount of familial expectations placed on them, in terms of marriage and career, and many often wilt under the pressure.
Further complicating their life is china’s drastic gender imbalance with too few women of marriageable age. It is estimated that, in the near future, tens of millions of chinese men will be forced to a life of bachelorhood, unable to marry and carry on their genetic line, they are referred to as the ‘Bare branches’ of society.
Not that the demand for brides has empowered chinese women to any end. In an increasingly patriarchal system, women are valuable like rare commodities, but are rarely valued as individuals, often expected to play second fiddle to their husbands, and play the housewife. This isn’t helped by the popular directives from the ccp women’s association who have come to call unmarried women in their late twenties, by the derogatory term of ‘leftover women’ (剩女)
Some more fatalistic ramifications of the policy come into play in times of natural disasters. During the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which claimed the lives of thousands, including a large number of children, a number of families found themselves facing the prospect of extinction, as well as an old age with no one to support them, as well as the social stigma of being childless couples. All the while, their government was more concerned with covering up the structurally unstable ‘tofu-dreg’ constructions which exacerbated the deaths, especially in badly built schools. 2008 was if one remembers the year of the chinese Olympics, and the party wouldn’t allow something as trivial as the death of children to taint their grand ceremony in beijing.
One child, forced abortions, and sterilizations, have left the chinese people a shortfall in terms of viable progeny. Today, with advances in personalized fertility medicine, the affluent sections of the populace, can avail to have surrogate pregnancies outside of china, with the added caveat of being able to choose desirable traits in their progeny. So in china, not only do the rich have more money, resources and comforts, they can also push out the poor in terms of having better children, or any children at all.
While for those who belong to the middle class and lower strata of society, bar a few exceptions, they are the ones who have to adhere to the draconian measures and consequences of the one child policy. Even adoption is denied for them, as ill befitting of a so called communist regime, china has managed to commercialize even infant adoptions. With a large number of wealthy foreign parents looking to adopt children from china, it has resulted in the growth of child kidnap and trafficking rings, centered around orphanages, and local officials. As if to aid such criminals, china’s adoption laws are exceedingly discriminating against domestic couples, favoring the richer foreign couples.
Even though it has been mentioned ad nauseum at this point, current day china is increasingly shaping up to be an abominable Frankenstein cross, between 1984 & The Brave new world. What the future holds, with an increasingly belligerent chinese regime, with its litany of burgeoning problems, is anyone’s speculation.
But, the book is definitely worth your while, to be more knowledgeable about the inner workings of the chinese society, at least through the lens of the one child policy.
November 10, 2019
** Books 114 - 2019 **
This books to accomplish Tsundoku Books Challenge 2019
3,8 of 5 stars!
This books is really mindblowing! I never knew the impact of one child policy in china can be like that. Somehow this books makes me frustated and sad how a girl is worthless than a boy in china. :'(
Thankyou Bigbadwolf 2019 in Jakarta!
This books to accomplish Tsundoku Books Challenge 2019
3,8 of 5 stars!
This books is really mindblowing! I never knew the impact of one child policy in china can be like that. Somehow this books makes me frustated and sad how a girl is worthless than a boy in china. :'(
Thankyou Bigbadwolf 2019 in Jakarta!
March 23, 2018
This was a really fun read. The author builds the compelling case that the one child policy was unnecessary, that its lack of need should have been apparent at the time, that its human cost was steep, and that its echoes will reverberate for decades.
The author is certainly partial, and she admits as much. I found myself at times reacting negatively to her, but that tension made the book that much more engaging.
The author is certainly partial, and she admits as much. I found myself at times reacting negatively to her, but that tension made the book that much more engaging.
May 14, 2018
This was a fascinating read on the near-mythical One Child Policy in China. As a child of the 80s, I remember some of the only things I learned about China was: thousands of years of dynasties, Huns, the Great Wall, communism, and everyone was only allowed to have one child. If I were born in China, I would have been among the first children born under this policy and I literally cannot imagine millions of single-child homes. The ramifications of this policy will be near catastrophic and we are only now starting to see how damaging this will be for China's future economy, culture, and social responsibility.
Read for the 2018 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge: A book of social science
Read for the 2018 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge: A book of social science
April 14, 2016
The Story of How China Commodified Her Children
Most of us take our right to reproduction as a basic, immutable human right. That’s why even those who know very little about the most populous country in the world know that its’ citizens are allowed a maximum of one child per couple. Today, China is a country where commercialism seem to be the dominant characteristic of its people, and it is easy to forget that it is still a communist regime and not a democratic society. The One Child policy is a painful reminder of the draconian power wielded over the population of this vast nation.
As a person of Chinese ancestry, it’s hard to reconcile the One Child policy with the traditional Chinese love of large families, where children are counted as an even greater asset than the already highly-revered duo of wealth and health. Conceived in the years of nationalistic fervour by idealistic rocket scientists, it has had untold, far-reaching ramifications that are only now becoming manifest. Reading Mei Fong’s One Child is reading about the worst nightmares of our grandparents, come true.
An investigative journalist born in Malaysia, Mei Fong painstakingly covered many different angles of the One Child story while living for a number of years in China. She explores the way the authorities applied the policy, and the inhumane power that enforcement officers exert over the Chinese: women are forcibly sterilized after the birth of their allocated child; foetuses as late as seven months of age are ruthlessly aborted; and illegal or out-of-plan children are routinely taken away by the authorities, never to be seen again. The social impacts that Fong depicts are manifold – a dire gender imbalance may give rise to yet-understood social ills; the financial and familial pressures on the single child are almost insurmountable; and children become spoiled, pampered little Emperors.
Fong begins her moving account in 2008, when she followed a group of construction workers back to their hometown in the Sichuan province, in the wake of a great earthquake that rocked the nation. In one devastating disaster, hundreds of only children were killed, and their parents became shidu, bereft and childless in a society where elder care is the responsibility of offspring, and not the state. With the loss of their child, they also lost friends, status, their pension, hospital and burial access, and hope for the future.
Mei Fong recounts those events with a sensitivity that comes of personal experience - during the trip to Sichuan, Fong also lost her only child: she had a miscarriage. It caused her to begin her exploration of the effects of this political ideology upon individual lives, and the unexpected, radical changes that the 35-year old policy has had on the Chinese psyche. Later she undergoes fertility treatments in Beijing, her hope for children a poignant counterpoint to the Chinese government’s aversion to the traditional fecundity of its population.
In the three decades since its implementation, the One Child policy has succeeded in changing the face of China’s population - it is now aging at an astounding rate, there are 30 million men who will not be able to find wives, and China’s greatest asset, its huge labour force, is rapidly dwindling in supply. In 2015, the Chinese government announced that the One Child policy would be relaxed for certain eligible couples, but the greatest effects of the policy may have already left its mark on the Chinese psyche for good. Response to the announcement has been lukewarm: the propaganda campaign of the policy has already convinced most young couples that more than one child is undesirable. Fong eloquently and affectingly paints a devastating picture of political dogma and social experimentation gone wrong; an Orwellian and Atwoodian dystopia brought to life.
Most of us take our right to reproduction as a basic, immutable human right. That’s why even those who know very little about the most populous country in the world know that its’ citizens are allowed a maximum of one child per couple. Today, China is a country where commercialism seem to be the dominant characteristic of its people, and it is easy to forget that it is still a communist regime and not a democratic society. The One Child policy is a painful reminder of the draconian power wielded over the population of this vast nation.
As a person of Chinese ancestry, it’s hard to reconcile the One Child policy with the traditional Chinese love of large families, where children are counted as an even greater asset than the already highly-revered duo of wealth and health. Conceived in the years of nationalistic fervour by idealistic rocket scientists, it has had untold, far-reaching ramifications that are only now becoming manifest. Reading Mei Fong’s One Child is reading about the worst nightmares of our grandparents, come true.
An investigative journalist born in Malaysia, Mei Fong painstakingly covered many different angles of the One Child story while living for a number of years in China. She explores the way the authorities applied the policy, and the inhumane power that enforcement officers exert over the Chinese: women are forcibly sterilized after the birth of their allocated child; foetuses as late as seven months of age are ruthlessly aborted; and illegal or out-of-plan children are routinely taken away by the authorities, never to be seen again. The social impacts that Fong depicts are manifold – a dire gender imbalance may give rise to yet-understood social ills; the financial and familial pressures on the single child are almost insurmountable; and children become spoiled, pampered little Emperors.
Fong begins her moving account in 2008, when she followed a group of construction workers back to their hometown in the Sichuan province, in the wake of a great earthquake that rocked the nation. In one devastating disaster, hundreds of only children were killed, and their parents became shidu, bereft and childless in a society where elder care is the responsibility of offspring, and not the state. With the loss of their child, they also lost friends, status, their pension, hospital and burial access, and hope for the future.
Mei Fong recounts those events with a sensitivity that comes of personal experience - during the trip to Sichuan, Fong also lost her only child: she had a miscarriage. It caused her to begin her exploration of the effects of this political ideology upon individual lives, and the unexpected, radical changes that the 35-year old policy has had on the Chinese psyche. Later she undergoes fertility treatments in Beijing, her hope for children a poignant counterpoint to the Chinese government’s aversion to the traditional fecundity of its population.
In the three decades since its implementation, the One Child policy has succeeded in changing the face of China’s population - it is now aging at an astounding rate, there are 30 million men who will not be able to find wives, and China’s greatest asset, its huge labour force, is rapidly dwindling in supply. In 2015, the Chinese government announced that the One Child policy would be relaxed for certain eligible couples, but the greatest effects of the policy may have already left its mark on the Chinese psyche for good. Response to the announcement has been lukewarm: the propaganda campaign of the policy has already convinced most young couples that more than one child is undesirable. Fong eloquently and affectingly paints a devastating picture of political dogma and social experimentation gone wrong; an Orwellian and Atwoodian dystopia brought to life.
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