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Title details for One Child by Mei Fong - Available

One Child

The Story of China's Most Radical Experiment

by Mei Fong
Janet Song
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
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2 of 2 copies available
When Communist Party leaders adopted the one-child policy in 1980, they hoped curbing birth-rates would help lift China's poorest and increase the country's global stature. But at what cost? Now, as China closes the book on the policy after more than three decades, it faces a population grown too old and too male, with a vastly diminished supply of young workers.
Mei Fong has spent years documenting the policy's repercussions on every sector of Chinese society. In One Child, she explores its true human impact, traveling across China to meet the people who live with its consequences. Their stories reveal a dystopian reality: unauthorized second children ignored by the state, only-children supporting aging parents and grandparents on their own, villages teeming with ineligible bachelors, and an ungoverned adoption market stretching across the globe. Fong tackles questions that have major implications for China's future: whether its "Little Emperor" cohort will make for an entitled or risk-averse generation; how China will manage to support itself when one in every four people is over sixty-five years old; and above all, how much the one-child policy may end up hindering China's growth.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 9, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781515922438
      • File size: 213467 KB
      • Duration: 07:24:43

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In 1980, faced with a burgeoning population and its resultant economic pressures, China enacted a family-planning policy that would, with few exceptions, limit families to one child. Janet Song's clear, smoothly paced narration is well suited to this fascinating and informative account of the effects of the one-child edict (which in 2015 was changed to a two-child policy). She guides listeners through the factual, historical, and political underpinnings of the policy and how it has affected all aspects of Chinese society. In a gentler yet straightforward tone, she also delivers heartfelt accounts of how the policy has directly and indirectly affected individuals. All in all, Song's narration is an excellent complement to Fong's well-organized account. S.E.G. Winner of AdioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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