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Rob_Hugo@PortNWi was talking to my dad about the content of our class, and he informed me that some parts of China are lifting the ban on the one child policy. Did you guys know anything about this, especially those that are doing research on this topic? My dad was telling me that in Shanghai, they were "loosening" the restrictions on only allowing families to have one child. And at first i was thinking that it was because the governemnt is possibly allowing a liberal standpoint to it. But i was informed this decision was made more so because of the aging population in China. Due to the one child policy and an increase in life expectancy in the past decades, the aging population has been increasing. And consequently there is a smaller youth population to support the elderly, through social security (and the like). I found this really interesting that this shift in population has been a rising concern to the Chinese government, and they have accordingly started to make political and social adjustments to counter this imbalance.
Some articles to read with interesting stats:
http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-04/13/content_322740.htm
http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-08/20/content_256469.htm
AnonymousHmm that seems rather surprising. I have only known of the government easing up on those who live in rural areas (letting them have more than 1 kid). It seems like a very delicate balance that the government must maintain. Lifting the ban, especially in a population-dense area like Shanghai, may lead to other problems such as pollution. The government is also encouraging individuals to buy their own cars, and with so many people in China, it is very detrimental to the environment. On the other hand, they can't ignore the needs of the elderly. It will be interesting to see if this works.
Anonymousi think that the government has plenty of reasons for lifting or easing provisions of the one-child policy. Aside from its apparent controversial aspects, the policy is flawed in many ways. As a result of the sex-selected abortions which became common under the policy, there is now a "missing generation" of girls and a large distorted ratio of males and females in China. If the policy was to go on in its original restricting form, China will likely become a nation of bachelors, unbable to find wives because none are available.
the policy has also created a greater gap between the rich and the poor, and the rural and the urban. Enforced under a system of rewards and punishments, the policy rewards those who have one child and fines those who have multiple. Since those who tend to have more than one children are those who cannot afford to lose the help and labor contributions of multiple children, they are more likely to be fined and punished than the wealthy. As a result, the policy is taking resources away from those most in need and giving it away to those already well off, further exacerbating the problem of poverty and class separation in China.
In addition to such problems, the government's lift of the one-child policy may be a result of the fact that couples today are voluntarily choosing to NOT have children. While the question thirty, fourty years ago was "how many children will couples have", the question in most parts of China today, especially in urban areas, is "whether or not couples will even HAVE children"[Edit by="qpang on May 26, 5:49:28 PM"][/Edit]
[Edit by="qpang on May 26, 5:50:14 PM"][/Edit]
[Edit by="qpang on May 26, 5:50:52 PM"][/Edit]
AnonymousYes, I've heard about loosening of the One-child Policy in China from my aunt when I went back to China last summer. According to my aunt, they're loosening the policy for rural areas, but definitely the inner cities because it is just too crowded. There are many social factors that lead to the goverment's decision to loosen the policy, but for the city folks it's still one child per family.
Anonymousthanks, avu, for posting the links to the two articles! i actually didn't know anything about the child policy in china being lifted. you know, seeing as how china is so strict with its family policies, i'm so glad we're living here and not elsewhere. i love kids, and one kid per family is definitely no fun at all.
Anonymousi find the one child policy in drastic contradiction the reading we did last week regarding japan's ever-so-superior method of raising a child successfully.
where i'm not 100% sure of the psychological studies on the correlations between family happiness and number of children, the article seems to assert strongly that two kids was the way to go. end of story.
i personally have always believed this innately...but it was interesting in how those authors were so...ehm.. sure of themselves..
but thats an interesting sociological effect isn't it. how does the policy of having one child affect chinese populations. supposedly, until recently that is, the chinese people have been raised in one child homes. thats REALLY funny, because what i do know is that studies have been conducted where being a firstborn,second born, etc. REALLY has an effect on your personality. as a matter of fact, maybe next time we meet in class...if you guys are bored enough, we just give it a try?
cause i believe it works. in high school we've done group tests and for some reason the "rubric" is always valid. so what does that mean. do we have a group of personality-similar zombies in china? i mean we've eliminated the second-born, or youngest born, or even oldest born complexes in personalities. all we have are a bunch of only childs.
even if we don't do this in class cause i just realized that some may find it lame, for those of you who are interested in this family-structure humor lets see if i can find a link for some kind of form of it on the web... check it out it really works, i'm serious.
http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/birth_order.htm
edit: i guess i used awkward word choices in the last sentence. its not humor. its fact (in most cases that is, not all)
AND...in case you're curious, i'm a first born ^^
this one is easier to follow, note there are two pages (for middle/younger)
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/relationships/famfri/family/articles/0,,163_559974,00.html[Edit by="afang on May 27, 5:25:11 PM"][/Edit]