One Child Policy

In class today, we talked about the One Child Policy conundrum in China imposed about 25 years ago. Seems like there’s a growing concern among the older generation about the newer generation. I found out that when women look for a job, one of the requirements that they have to answer to is whether they’re using this government issued birth control ring that is inserted in the women’s uterus every 5 years. If they do not, they will be rejected because of the risk of consequences imposed by the government on theat company. If a woman is found pregnant for the second time, there’s a lot of paperwork and hassle that the company has to go through to explain the situation. And apparently, the government then takes the women’s salary. So it’s a lose lose situation for all.

Since parents are only allowed one child and have to pay a lot to have more, parents lavish all their love and attention on that one child. In today’s Chinese  average income family, both parents work, leaving the child in the care of the grandparents. So that one child enjoys exclusive attention not only from the parents but from both sides of the grandparents as well. This is resulting in a generation who are apparently spoilt, self-centered, selfish and not willing to give and take as they’ve never had to do it growing up.

For example, there was a recent publication in a local magazine about summer school trip where Japanese and Chinese children went for a week’s camping trip up in the mountains. When it got cold at night, it was easy to tell between the children from both countries. The Japanese kids knew to get the warm clothes from their backpacks to cover themselves. The Chinese kids just moaned and complained that they were cold and didn’t know how to keep themselves warm.

Here’s another example. My friend just had her friends over at her house and they brought along their 7 year old child. When the child went from one room to another, his mother chased after him to either take his coat off or put in on for him when he complained that the room was too hot or cold. The walls in their house is covered in pen markings. This is obviously an extreme case of a spoilt child but it closely exemplifies the new breed of Chinese that is now becoming the new leaders and workforce of China.

The divorce rate in China is also increasing rapidly. Quite a number of chinese people have mentioned one of their suspicions to me. Unlike the older generation with bigger families where the males were taught give in to their sisters or the older ones to give in to the younger siblings, these children in the last 20 years or so have grown up not having to share, or give in to one another in the course of an argument. But to take and own what they have to their fullest desire. Of course, this cannot be applied to the whole generation. But it’s definitely a prevalent concern and a topic that is not foreign to people here. Obviously, the major concern is the ability of the newer generation in the office setting in terms of negotiation and ability to cooperate with one another, once the older generation is gone.