Fertility and some determinants of fertility decline in Huaibei Plain, Anhui province, China, 1982

1987 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 323-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quanhe Yang

SummaryThis paper examines the level and trend of fertility in Huaibei Plain, Anhui province, China, since 1950 and considers some determinants of fertility decline. The data used are from the 1/1000 survey of China which was conducted by the Family Planning Commission in 1982.Fertility decline among younger women (aged under 30) is largely due to later age at marriage, the marriage pattern of Huaibei Plain having changed from early and universal marriage to later and universal marriage. Current use of contraception suggests that the family planning programme, in particular the one-child policy (1979), has been the major determinant in fertility decline. The greatest decline in marital fertility occurred among women aged 35+ and is primarily due to contraceptive practice and induced abortion.

Significance This year it increased the limit to three. The one-child policy has served more to exacerbate than to alleviate demographic problems, leaving China with an ageing population and shrinking workforce much sooner than other countries at this stage of economic development. Impacts Rising infertility will play a part in depressing birth rates. Vested interests and the government's proclivity for social control will prevent the wholesale abolition of family planning. National and local authorities will introduce policies to promote reproduction; not all of them will necessarily be socially liberal.


Author(s):  
Martin K. Whyte

For centuries, China has had the world’s largest population, although it will soon lose that title to India. When Mao Zedong and his colleagues seized national power in 1949, they were not sure how many Chinese there were (the first modern census was not conducted until 1953), and Mao initially argued that having a large and rapidly increasing population was a blessing for China, rather than a curse. However, the challenges of managing such a large and poor country soon changed the official view, and during some intervals in the 1950s and 1960s, China carried out voluntary family planning campaigns to try to reduce the birth rate. However, those campaigns were largely ineffective, with the only notable decline in fertility during those decades produced by the Great Leap Forward–induced mass famine of 1959–1961, not family planning efforts. As of 1970 the projected number of babies the average Chinese mother would have in her lifetime (termed the total fertility rate [TFR]) was still close to six. (China’s cities, where less than 20 percent of the population lived at the time, is an exception to these generalizations, with the 1960s family planning campaign playing some role in reducing the urban TFR in 1970 to 3.2.) Early in the 1970s, when Mao was still in charge (he died in 1976), China made a dramatic shift from voluntary family planning to mandatory birth limits under the slogan, “later (marriage ages), longer (birth intervals), and fewer” (births—no more than two babies for urban families and three for rural families). The “later, longer, fewer” campaign was enforced very strictly, using many of the coercive measures that later became notorious during the one-child campaign, and China’s fertility rate fell dramatically, to less than three per mother by the end of the decade. Despite this success, in 1980 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched an even more demanding and coercive campaign that attempted for the next thirty-five years to limit Chinese families to having only one child. The fertility rate actually went up in the early 1980s but then began to decline again, reaching subreplacement fertility (TFR = 2.1) by the early 1990s. Most experts estimate that China’s TFR fluctuated in the 1.4 to 1.6 range between 2000 and 2015, although some analysts have calculated higher figures, and others lower. The CCP in late 2015 decided to end the one-child limit, with Chinese families since January 1, 2016 allowed to have two children (but no more, at least as of 2019). Debates about the controversial one-child policy have spawned a large literature that examines many issues, including the reasons the CCP launched this campaign, how effective it was in reducing birth rates further, what human rights abuses resulted, how child-rearing and children have been affected, and in what ways Chinese society and the people of China have benefited or have been harmed by the demographic distortions produced by mandatory, state-enforced birth limits.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-49
Author(s):  
Wang Huan

n traditional Chinese culture, the concepts of femininity and masculinity are “plural categories” which are based on family and society, hence they are not clearly distinguished nor opposite to each other. In ancient times, people valued the power of women, channelling it by saying that women should devote themselves to benefiting the state. Meanwhile, society oppressed women by limiting them to their marital homes in order to eradicate men’s unconscious fear of the destructive side of feminine power. On the other hand, for Chinese men, sexual pleasure and aggression were unwelcome, while the mother–son relationship was most important within the family, and comradeship and brotherhood between men another important aspect of relationships. Profoundly mutual relationships were not encouraged between men and women in ancient China. Even until now, all men and women and their intimate relationships have been in the service of politics. The interests of the family and state are placed above individual interests. However, the one-child policy, as the product of government decision based on population numbers rather than human factors, and implemented by coercion, has produced a generation of empowered daughters and “little emperors” who increasingly value and appreciate individualism. The new generations must learn how to develop new forms of mutuality between the partners, with evolving implications for masculinity and femininity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 800-822 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Qin ◽  
Jane Falkingham ◽  
Sabu S. Padmadas

SummaryAlthough China’s family planning programme is often referred to in the singular, most notably the One-Child policy, in reality there have been a number of different policies in place simultaneously, targeted at different sub-populations characterized by region and socioeconomic conditions. This study attempted to systematically assess the differential impact of China’s family planning programmes over the past 40 years. The contribution of Parity Progression Ratios to fertility change among different sub-populations exposed to various family planning policies over time was assessed. Cross-sectional birth history data from six consecutive rounds of nationally representative population and family planning surveys from the early 1970s until the mid-2000s were used, covering all geographical regions of China. Four sub-populations exposed to differential family planning regimes were identified. The analyses provide compelling evidence of the influential role of family planning policies in reducing higher Parity Progression Ratios across different sub-populations, particularly in urban China where fertility dropped to replacement level even before the implementation of the One-Child policy. The prevailing socioeconomic conditions in turn have been instrumental in adapting and accelerating family planning policy responses to reducing fertility levels across China.


Author(s):  
Di Tang ◽  
Xiangdong Gao ◽  
Jiaoli Cai ◽  
Peter. C. Coyte

Objective: The bias towards males at birth has resulted in a major imbalance in the Chinese sex ratio that is often attributed to China’s one-child policy. Relaxation of the one-child policy has the potential to reduce the imbalance in the sex ratio away from males. In this study, we assessed whether the bias towards males in the child sex ratio was reduced as a result of the two-child policy in China. Medical records data from one large municipal-level obstetrics hospital in Shanghai, East China. Design: Matching and difference-in-differences (MDID) techniques were used to investigate the effect of the two-child policy on the imbalance in the sex ratio at birth after matching for pregnancy status and socioeconomic factors. Results: Analyzing 133,358 live births suggest that the relaxation of the one-child policy had a small, but statistically significant effect in reducing the imbalance in the male to female sex ratio at birth. Conclusion: The results demonstrate that relaxation of the one-child policy reduced the imbalance in the male to female sex ratio at birth from 1.10 to 1.05 over the study period at one of the major obstetrics and gynecology hospitals in China.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Wabilia Husnah

In the Chinese tradition that is influenced by the Confusianism, women are seen to have lower positions than men. In such a social system, the One-Child policy initiated by Deng Xiaoping since 1979 as a program to control the population, underpin the inferiority perception upon Chinese women. This article aims analyze the effects of the China’s One Child Policy towards Chinese women’s lives. It is important to understand how Chinese Women live after their lives have been affected by this Policy, in a good or a bad way. The results show that One Child Policy has negative impacts on Chinese women’s lives. It does not only lead to discrimination views againts women, but also indirectly violate a Chinese woman’s social, cultural and economic rights. Criminal cases overshadow the Chinese women, ranging from torture, neglect of children, abortion, illegal adoption, human trafficking, kidnapping, and even prostitution. On the other hand, all criminal cases makes women become “rare “ and “special” objects in China. Ironically, the scarcity of women in China actually cause the higher bargaining power of women. Now in their lives, Chinese women can go to school, work, choosing a spouse, or even file for divorce. Women’s social status in Chinese society has increased now. It means that women also obtain the positive impact of One-Child Policy.Keywords: women, confucianism, the one child policyAbstrakDalam tradisi Tiongkok yang dipengaruhi oleh Konfusianisme, perempuan selalu memiliki posisi lebih rendah daripada laki-laki. Dalam sistem sosial seperti ini, Kebijakan Satu Anak yang diperkenalkan oleh Deng Xiaoping sejak 1979 sebagai program untuk mengontrol populasi, turut mendukung inferioritas wanita Tiongkok. Artikel ini mencoba menganalisis efek Kebijakan Satu Anak di Tiongkok kepada kehidupan perempuan. Sangat penting untuk memahami bagaimana perempuan Tiongkok menjalani hidupnya pascakehidupannya telah dipengaruhi oleh kebijakan ini, dengan cara yang baik maupun yang buruk. Artikel ini berkesimpulan bahwa Kebijakan Satu Anak memiliki dampak negatif dalam kehidupan perempuan. Kebijakan ini tidak hanya menyebabkan pandangan diskriminatif terhadap perempuan, namun juga secara tidak langsung melanggar hak asasi dalam kehidupan sosial, kultural, dan ekonomi perempuan Tiongkok. Kasus kriminal pun membayangi perempuan Tiongkok, mulai dari penyiksaan, pengabaian anak perempuan, aborsi, adopsi ilegal, penjualan manusia, penculikan, bahkan prostitusi.Di lain pihak, semua kasus kriminal ini telah membuat perempuan menjadi objek yang “langka” dan “spesial” di Tiongkok. Ironisnya, kelangkaan perempuan di Tiongkok menyebabkan nilai tawar perempuan menjadi lebih tinggi. Sekarang, dalam kehidupan mereka, perempuan Cina bisa pergi ke sekolah, bekerja, memilih pasangan hidup, bahkan menuntut cerai. Status sosial perempuan dalam masyarakat Tiongkok pun sudah meningkat sekarang. Ini berarti, perempuan Tiongkok juga telah mendapatkan efek positif dari Kebijakan Satu Anak.Kata kunci: perempuan, konfusianisme, kebijakan satu anak


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