Suckerfish wrote:First of all was the article the Cracked article "The 4 Strangest Things Nobody Tells You About Life in China"?
Second of all, is the "one child policy"* still causing problems with girl children being abandoned or aborted, or is that much less prevalent now? I've alwyas been fascinated about the "one child policy" in general actually, so I'll ask you something else. What is the general public opinion towards that particular ordnance? Is it something that is just another part of life, or is it one of those topics that is generally always on the public consciousness (like healthcare or the economy here in the states)?
* I do understand a good bit of the policy is conditional, so calling it the "one child policy" is a misnomer, but calling it the Family Planning Policy is less instantly recognizable.
Since I've been here, the only times I've heard about abandoned girls has been from other ex-pats who were here working as "undercover missionaries." I'd say boys are still highly preferred, but most of the new-parents I've known are pretty happy to see ten fingers and ten toes, eyes, ears, and nose, all in the right place. I'm in a massive, developed city though, so that could be happening out in the countryside.
As for gender-based abortion, it should be impossible, since it's illegal for doctors to tell parents which gender shows up in an ultra-sound. However, there are probably ways around that. Even if the usual bribe doesn't work, in my city, wealthy folks can usually get a visa to travel to Hong Kong or Macau for a medical, and they could maybe find that information there, then act on it. Then, too, selective in-vetro is a more and more popular way of having the "perfect baby" for rich couples here, and the bias may fall heavily in favor of boys.
Again, I live in an extremely urbanized city here, so I can't speak too much for the countryside. Here, though, you hear almost no one talking about the One-Child policy. Most conversations I've ever had about it are along the lines of "You can have all the children you want, and you have none! Americans must be very free, but also very stupid." At most, I have a conversation about the topic once a month, which is really rare compared to other topics.
Aside from that, I've had it explained by a professor (i.e., government employee) that if someone in their work unit were to have a second child, it would mean that the entire work unit would be fined, and the new parent would be fired. I originally thought this sounded a bit Orwellian, but the professor asked what would happen if a D.E.A. agent in the States was openly using meth, then got caught up in a scandal. The results would be pretty similar, I'd guess.
Since very few people actually hold government positions anymore, the policy is mostly enforced by fines. A couple gets one baby for free (well, you know what I mean), then they have to pay a fine for any additional children. One of my former students had nine siblings. His parents were absolutely loaded, his mother pretty tired. I've also met farmers' children who had six, seven, eight siblings as well, so obviously the fines are income-based.
I think most people, though, especially young, job-seeking graduates, favor the policy overall. The population here is huge, and all the better opportunities are packed into a few cities. People in the States say it's hard finding a job when 100 people are all applying for the same low-level position. Here, it might be 1,000 people applying, and some of them are bound to have more money than you. That last sentence isn't a typo; people whose families have more money are more likely to get hired for opening positions, and people do pay. When a friend was working an unpaid internship, I learned a new sentence in Chinese, which translates, "The work is hard; the hours are long; usually you have to pay for a job this good." If you're looking for a job in that sort of situation, a policy enacted before you were born to improve your chances might seem like a good deal.
The only other thing I hear sometimes is an oft-recurring rumor that if a one-child marries a one-child, they may be allowed to have two children at some point in the future. As far as I know, it's just a rumor started on the estimated 2025 shift into a "greying" population.
Oh, and it was an article on cracked, but I think the title may have been different when I read it.
It's always in the last place you look for it, unless you're the kind of person who keeps looking for it after you've found it.