Session 1 - October 9

[Christine Xu]

In the late 1970s, Chinese government implemented One-Child policy, a mandatory policy, to control Chinese population. People were told “ Less Children, Better Life”. However, more and more people are against it. 

Although this policy controlled the population somehow, it caused a lot of side effects in China according to Mei Fong’s book. They are surplus of males, more and more aging population, and labor shortage in the future. 

Since 2016, the more than one child ( two) policy has been implemented in China to replace the country’s previous one-child policy. 

A “ two-child policy” like the “ one-child policy” of population controls remains a powerful symbol fo China’s efforts to control its people. But as China has found with its stock exchanges, human behavior-like market forces, cannot be fully controlled. The government should allow its citizens to live as they choose, and to compete, to fail and to succeed on their own. 

In my class I will let my students do research about Chinese “One-Child policy. We are going to talk and share ideas about the Pros and Cons of the policy. 

 

[Genaro Flores]

Finally, the one child policy ended in china.  That policy caused some hardship on man directly because there were not many. or still are not enough women available for man to marry. The documentary shows what one family did to help one of their members to get a woman in another country and how happy they were when they saw their relative being realized. On the other hand, that policy helped to control the population growths in china which had worried the government to provide all the needs for its people, like food, education, work, and keeping them healthy.

As Dr. Dube presented about how much land and the man power (population) china has available and how they have been using them to be where they are now.  It is something to admire. It is not easy to control such number of people.  Maybe the means used were not the best, But giving the scenario that wasn’t that helpful due to dry land, shortage of water, many dialects to communicate, defeated by small nation, internal division, invaded by other countries, in spite of all that they have manage to become a very strong economical nation in the world.

 

[Nira Sun]

Here is an article dicusses the Hukou Reform.

https://thediplomat.com/2017/02/chinas-hukou-reforms-and-the-urbanization-challenge/

[clay dube]

Here are the videos I embedded in the discussion of party and politics.

CD Rev "This is China": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCm3sbujB8g

CD Rev "The Force of Red": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cWQGDW8Jb0

The Cult of Xi ( 习近平 不知道该怎么称呼你   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6xpKqrytDI)

 

[Natali Ramon]

I viewed the Al Jazeera film on China’s single men and it provided a deeper understanding of the issue of gender imbalance in China.  I never considered the other effects the overabundance of men can have on a country, but I am really glad that this documentary exposed me to how this social issue is related to other global issues such as human trafficking.  Seeing how people distribute the decks of cards with the pictures of missing women, really reminded me of the femicide in Juarez, Mexico.  I was also really struck by the way in which this film showed the social pressures men face in China. For example, it was noted in the documentary that unmarried men are considered gang good, or dead branches.  I am usually more aware of the social pressures women face when it comes to marriage and child bearing and it was interesting to see how these familial traditions affect men.  

[Natali Ramon]

I viewed the short film Invisible Wall and it was very compelling to see how Hukou affects children.  What really stands out to me is that one of China’s greatest challenges in an imbalance in development.  It seems that urban centers are teeming with economic and social opportunities while rural areas seem to be desolate.  In the film Meng Yun’s mother notes that in their home province there are no opportunities and when they move back, they will essentially start from nothing once again.  I can only imagine that these “floating populations” cause a great deal of overcrowding challenges, however, it is very important to note that the migration of rural people to cities is not the issue itself, rather they are a symptom of a development problem in China.  In order to fix the problem of migration populations, China must consider how to develop rural areas so that people don’t have the necessity to migrate in the first place.  It might be a personal positionality thing, but in many ways this video reminded me of the migration issues we face in the United States.   

[Nira Sun]

Yes, both men and women in China face the same amount of pressure when it comes to marriage. I have heard about people "buying wifes" from Southeast Asian countries. However this is my first time watching a documentary on that topic. The guy named Lan Sui (hope I got it right) seemed to be super happy when finally he was able to get a wife who can acutally speak Chinese. He mentioned that one of the top duties as a man in the household is to "have a son to carry on the family name". There is an old saying from Meng Zi which is "There are three ways to be unfilial; having no sons is the worst." According to certain explanation, "having no son is the worst" is considered as a misinterpretation of what Meng Zi's original meaning. However, this misinterpretation has been deeply rooted as one of the Chinese traditional values.

Men is more valuable than women due to the fact that they are capable of more labor work. Even though there are some perspective and value changes in big cities, it is still traditional in rural areas. I personally feel bad for the Indoesian lady who had no idea what she is facing in her future life. Let's just hope that Mr. Sui will treat her well. They are both the victims of this traditional value.

[clay dube]

I doubt the 8 m people in Beijing without Beijing hukou will be impressed by this measure. At this rate, it will take 1,333 years for all to get Beijing hukou, but perhaps it is just a pilot program and next year will bring a big ramping up of the effort.

 

 http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1123283.shtml

Beijing's hukou reform brings 1st group beneficiaries 

Source:Xinhua Published: 2018/10/17 9:56:06 

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Around 6,000 non-natives of Beijing will be able to get the city's hukou, or household registration status, through a new point-based household registration reform.

The Beijing municipal bureau of human resources and social security on Monday announced a name list of 6,019 people who had the most points among over 124,000 applicants for a Beijing hukou.

If no questions are raised about their points, these people, aged between 31 and 58 and from sectors including technology, manufacturing, finance, media, education and public health, can receive their hukou starting Oct. 23 this year until the end of 2020, said the bureau.

The status, much coveted by many non-natives, is a crucial document entitling residents to social welfare in Beijing. The highly-anticipated application for the household registration status in China's capital started April 16 and ended June 14.

For Wang Yong, chairman of Brand Union (Beijing) Consulting Co., Ltd., Monday is a memorable day as his name was on the list.

"This is a positive trial as it opens a new door for non-natives working in the city," said the doctorate holder who has been working in Beijing for 22 years.

"The point-based household registration system is a win-win," said a woman surnamed Hu who was also on the list. "The city can hardly develop without the contribution of non-natives and meanwhile, non-natives working in the city also need social welfare provided by the city government in all aspects," said Hu, who has been working in a think-tank in Beijing for 19 years.

Under the new policy, non-natives under the legal retirement age who have held a Beijing temporary residence permit with the city's social insurance records for seven consecutive years and are without a criminal record, are eligible to accumulate points for the hukou.

Those with good employment, higher payment of tax, stable homes in Beijing, strong educational background, and achievements in innovation and establishing start-ups in Beijing can get higher scores in the point-based competition for the city's hukou.

The point-based household registration policy is a practical choice for mega-cities like Beijing which have population control targets but still need to attract talent for quality growth.

In the pilot period, Beijing's quota for new hukou holders is set at 6,000 each year based on the city's development planning and population capacity, according to the Beijing municipal bureau of human resources and social security. By the end of 2017, the number of people holding a Beijing hukou reached 13.59 million, while the city's permanent population totaled 21.7 million.

Beijing plans to cap its population at 23 million by 2020 and also in the long term, as it seeks to address "big city diseases" such as traffic congestion and pollution.

Point-based household registration has also been piloted in cities like Shanghai. It has proved to be effective in satisfying the demand for personnel flow while limiting rapid growth of urban population.

[clay dube]

Just to pound home a point on early Chinese thought, here's the passage that Nira quotes:

不孝有三，無後為大。 (The punctuation is added. Literary Chinese didn't have it.)  It's both simple, direct and vague at the same time. It doesn't expressly say you have to have sons, but since China was a patrilineal society (name, property passed down through the male line), it can be implied. But it might also be understood as simply saying you have to have children. Since women traditionally married out of the village, it meant that families thought of girls as being someone you raised for another family's eventual benefit. From a big picture standpoint, of course, a community needs both, but from a selfish, what's best for me and my family standpoint, it's easy to see why families would prefer boys. Multiplied across the country, you see those individual family decisions having a gigantic effect.

[Christine Xu]

China’s water diversion project starts for flow to Beijing. The first phase-the total length of central line is 1467 kilometers. 9.5 billion cubic meters of water is sent northward annually. The second phase will reach 14 billion cubic meters. The central route starts from Dangjinagkou. The 80 million project may relief to the parched north, but at what cost  to the drought-ridden south and its displaced farmers?

Pro: the government believes that it is the good solution. Water from the south will great boost supply. It will alleviate Beijing’s shortage. 

Con: people had to move ( no choice). It is not the final solution. 

It destroyed many peoples normal life. About 345,000 villagers have been displaced by the project to date. The local people are less happy. 

Also, The water diversion project has also drawn criticism from an ecological point of view. The locals near the lower stretch of the Han are worried far-away Beijing will take away too much water from the river. However, nobody dares say this out loud. According to some experts,experts, in summer it will be difficult to water the crops. There will be less water for industry. The shipping and fish sectors will suffer. And moreover, as the water’s self-cleaning capacities dwindle, there will be more pollution. 

Sources: dw.com

 

[Katrina Oh]

Christine, thank you for clearly outlining the pros and cons of the water diversion project in China. I can understand the rationale of the government for proposing a plan to divert freshwater from the south to the parched North by connecting existing bodies of water. But I am shocked by the scale of the plan. China’s government intends to spend 80 billion dollars to build 2,700 miles of waterways comparable to the distance between New York and Los Angeles. Once again, the amount of control the state is able to exercise is a culture shock for me and the willingness of its citizens to the project is something that shocks me. Were something like this to happen in the United States, I imagine there would be a lot of pushback and delay. 

[Nira Sun]

Hi Marco,

I agreed with you on the unintended concequences caused by the one-child policy. The rising imbalance in the ratio of men to women in China has be brought to the attention of the officials. China now has the law to ban the sex-screening of infant to avoid the situation where couples choose to keep or abort the fetuse. It is now illegal to give the test.

However, this does not stop couples from getting to know the gender of their babies through illegal channels. This is more of a "unintended concequence" of the ending of one-child policy. Couples who try to get a different sex from their first-born tend to take the risk to explore the secret.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/967205.shtml

[Nira Sun]

Thank you Dr. Dube for adding this passage. Speaking of marrying out, it reminded me of explaining "marry to..." in Chinese. It surpsied my students a lot. I'm confident that you've already known this but allow me to explain to others here:

There are two "marry to..." in Chinese. One is 嫁 (jia) which is the word from women's perspective. Another one is "娶" which is from men's perspective. What's more interesting is the directional complement (which is similiar to the "to" in English language) we use after these two verbs. To describe a lady marries to a guy, we say 嫁出去 (jia chu qu). Since the phrase 出去 indicates going out, it clearly says that a woman marries out. On contrary, to describe a guy marries to a woman, we say 娶進來 （qu jin lai). Obviously, the word 進來 means come in which describes how a guy bringing a woman to his house. If we go a little further and break the characters down, it will be even more surprising.

嫁出去= 女(female)+家(house)+ 出去(out) = a girl marry out of her house

娶進來= 取(to obtain)+女(female)+進來(come in) = to get a girl to your house

 

My students were astonished when they learned about this and said it was sexist. I had to teach them to see it from a different perspective. Language is always tied with culture and value systems. Chinese language is an ancient language that is carried out for 5000 years along with its culture. Value system changes as the society develops. Preference to males over females is not uncommon in any part of the world. Although the social status of women has improved a lot, we wouldn't be able to go back and change the characters or how they are formed anymore. Fortunately, I also introduced the word "結婚" (jie hun) to them which is more neutral. The word "結" means "to tie" which is quite similar to the western saying of "tie the knot"  : )

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