Essay: The Societal and Personal Impact of China's One Child Policy

This essay delves into China's One Child Policy, a birth planning program initiated to control population growth. It contrasts this policy with contraceptive-focused approaches in other countries, highlighting China's limitation on the number of children per family. The essay focuses on the author's personal experiences and those of their parents, illustrating the policy's impact on family dynamics and expectations. It discusses the societal pressures on single children, the burden of fulfilling parental expectations, and the challenges faced in adulthood, including managing responsibilities towards parents and children. The essay concludes by acknowledging the policy's negative psychological effects on both parents and children, despite its intended goals of population and economic control, and its impact on the author's life.

Running head: ONE CHILD POLICY IN CHINA
ONE CHILD POLICY IN CHINA
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1ONE CHILD POLICY IN CHINA
One child policy is a program that is being initiated by China as their birth planning
program it is being mainly designed in order to control the quick growing population of the
China (Feng, Wang, Yong Cai, and Baochang Gu). It is very different from the other policies
which are being adopted by the other countries in order to control the birth of the new born as the
other countries tends to focus on the providing with the contraceptive options to the women so
that they can decide on the number of babies they want to have (Cameron, Lisa). However, in
contrast to this, china limits on the total number of children a parent could have. This policy is
considered to be one of the extreme level of population planning. This essay will be focusing on
the experiences faced by me and my parents as a result of the one child policy program.
The one child policy program in the china was being created as the on generation policy.
It was being implied in the provincial standard. However, it is to be noted that some of the
provinces tend to have restrictions which were more relaxed in their nature. The one child policy
was being implemented strictly in the areas which were densely populate During the period of
time when this policy was being introduced, 6.1 million of families who had given birth to a
child were provided with one child honorary certificates (İmrohoroğlu, Ayşe, and Kai Zhao).
This is the kind of the pledge that was being taken by the families to ensure that they would not
have more than one children. This policy was mainly adopted in the early time of the 1970’s and
early 1980’s by the central government of the China. The main purpose that tends to lie behind
the implementation of the policy was to limit the huge majority of the units of the family in the
country. The reason for which the policy was being implemented by China was to limit or reduce
the growth rate of the population of the China. It is to be noted that the policy was considered to
be a very temporary method to slow down the expansion of the population. It was also meant to
facilitate the growth of the finance during the time when the nation faced high shortage of the

2ONE CHILD POLICY IN CHINA
capital, natural resources and of the consumer goods. Though there are several advantages to the
policy in general, it is to be noted that the policy had huge negative impact as well. It reduced
the rate of fertility. One of the significant disadvantage was that it lead to the bad impact of the
gender ratio of the people of china as the people preferred to abort or even abandon their children
who are females. However, it is to be noted that the policy of the china also had great impact on
my life as well. Since, my parents had only one child, they expected everything from me. Since,
my parents wanted a second child and as per the policy of the china, they could not have so,
rather they had to abandon their idea of having their second baby, whatever amount of
expectations they had from their second child, they expected the same from me. Thus, it can be
said that I had to fulfill the role or the responsibilities that I had towards them as may parents and
also fulfill the expectations that they wanted from their second child which they did not get in the
long run. Since, I was their only child, they had huge amount of expectations from me. They
wanted me to score huge marks in the academics and be academically a very brilliant child. On
the other hand, in order to make sure, that my concentration do not gets break, they used to make
sure that I do not engage myself in the household activities like cleaning the house, washing the
dishes or engage myself in the works of the laundry. My parents just wanted me to just focus on
my academics in order to score really well. However, it is to be noted, apart from the
expectations of my family to score a very high marks in the academics and even become very
much academically a brilliant student, they also expected me to be very good in my co-curricular
activities as well. They wanted their second child to learn and play piano but since because of the
policy, they could not have one, they made me learn piano and have the expectation that I must
excel in playing piano as well. Apart from this, they also have the expectation that I must
participate in the activities so that they can feel proud of their child. It can therefore be said that

3ONE CHILD POLICY IN CHINA
the I am carrying the double burden of my life. One of the burden is that of the expectation that I
must fulfill as the child towards my parents and the other burden that I need to carry is the
expectation that my family tends to have towards their unborn desired child. Hence, it can be
said that this one child policy of the china brought huge negative impact on the children like me.
However, the policy is considered to be another problem in the life which I tend to live in the
present. According to the policy of the china, the parents can have only one child. all the parents
expects that they will be taken care of in the time when they will become old as it becomes very
much difficult for them to do all the activities by themselves. However, in the present situation or
the life that I tend to live, I have grown up. In the present state in which I live, my marital status
is married and I have a son. As the wife of the family and a mother of a son, I tend to have
certain responsibilities towards my household, family and my child. However, it is to be noted
that with the passing of my age, my parents have become aged and they expect me to take care of
them. However, I tend to face huge difficulties in managing the responsibilities as the mother
towards my child, as a wife towards my husband and a daughter towards my aged parents. I
have to travel all the way from my present home to the home of my parents every day in order to
take care of them. It becomes very much difficult for me. However, I do believe if my parents
had another child along with me which the policy did not permit, my responsibilities would have
been shared. Instead of my parents being totally dependent on me, the shared responsibility
would have been better for both of us. We would have taken care of them in a better way without
having much to worry about. However, since the policy of the china did not allow my parents to
have more than one child, single children like me are sharing the burden of the two. However, I
also tend to have a single boy and when I will become old, my child will also face the same
problem and the cycle will tend to continue.

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The conclusion that can be derived is that though that one child chines policy was meant
to control the population of the china and even to control the economic rate, it had various
negative effect as well. However, the psychological impact of the one child policy both on the
parents as well as the children cannot be ignored.

5ONE CHILD POLICY IN CHINA
Reference
Cameron, Lisa, et al. "Little emperors: behavioral impacts of China's One-Child
Policy." Science 339.6122 (2013): 953-957.
Feng, Wang, Yong Cai, and Baochang Gu. "Population, policy, and politics: how will history
judge China's one-child policy?." PoPulation and develoPment review 38 (2013): 115-129.
İmrohoroğlu, Ayşe, and Kai Zhao. "The chinese saving rate: Long-term care risks, family
insurance, and demographics." Journal of Monetary Economics 96 (2018): 33-52.