How the One-Child Policy in China Causes Bad Manners

The China Teaching Web ^ | 11/28/2008 | Robert Vance

[robertvance]

This sense of entitlement on the part of Chinese men is a big problem in China. In a country where 'manhood' is still highly prized, however, such behavior is not entirely surprising. One child families - where parents and grandparents spoil their children 'silly' - produce millions of men who grow up believing that they are the kings of the world. After all, even well into their late teenage years, everything is done for them. Their mothers wash their clothes, cook meals for them, and their fathers pay for four years of university - the young men never have to work until the day they step out of the university. Students who I have spoken with on this issue admit to me that they were never taught how to have good manners by their parents. It simply never came up in a conversation.

[metmom]

Doesn’t sound too different than many places in America.

I wonder what American parents excuses are for raising spoiled kids.

[Bulldawg Fan]

Government policy only makes human nature worse in many cases......like this one.

[Tax-chick]

I wonder what American parents excuses are for raising spoiled kids.

"We want them to be happy!"

[Ann Archy]

Not only ill-mannered, but they will have to choose HOMOSEXUALITY if there are no women and girls for them to marry.

[Colquhoun]

I lived in China before these one child only boys were old enough to go out in public alone.
The men in China behaved that way then. Nothing has changed e The women have raised them this way since the beginning of time. Men are simply viewed as more important.

[Pearls Before Swine]

I’ve been hearing about the one child policy for decades, but the Chinese population doesn’t seem to have dropped. True, its growth has been arrested, but it seems to be pretty static. That means that, despite the policy, the average birth rate must be close to or slightly above the replacement rate of 2.0 per couple. So what gives? Is it only enforced on the non-connected?

[ZinGirl]

not to mention words/concepts which are foreign to them: brother, sister, sibling rivalry....

[Rummyfan]

The disparity between the numbers of the Chinese male population and the female populations is large and growing, mainly due to the one-child policy (female babies are aborted or put up for adoption). If it continues to grow, China will be the first gay superpower since Sparta....

[Onelifetogive]

I wonder what American parents excuses are for raising spoiled kids.

I don't want them to have to struggle the way I did when I was growing up...(You know, that struggle that gave me the character and drive that made me who I am.)

[Niuhuru]

“I don’t want them to have to struggle the way I did when I was growing up...(”

Like many of another generation I daresay.

[Niuhuru]

“China will be the first gay superpower since Sparta....”

Oh Super!

[Republic of Texas]

Sounds like a result of the Women’s ERA movement. The liberal ladies never thought about the consequences of true equality.

[John Leland 1789]

Rudeness by men in public places, especially in restaurants, is a characteristic that is hard to miss here in Shanghai.

In most sit-down restaurants and coffee houses in Shanghai there are these neat little wireless units at each table. You can push one button to call a waitress to order, another to call for water, another to call for your check, etc. They all seem to work quite well.

But one constantly hears Chinese men yelling through the restaurant for the waitress, and in very rude and demanding voice. I mean it is sickening. One would think that they are all stinking drunk when they yell out — it is that loud, crude, and belligerent. I always hope the waitress would haul off and slap these men, but of course they will not, but act very humble and as if they are the ones deserving of the insult. It is very demeaning to the help.

And you mention sodomy (you used the PC word, “homosexuality”). We noticed sodomites operating on the tarmac in front of the Harbin City Rail Station at night as far back as 1994! It is a real and growing problem here resulting from the one-child policy which has caused a drastic ratio imbalance between the sexes.

[A_Former_Democrat]

And just another reason why China’s best and brightest females dream of having a Western man.

[tbw2]

It is one child in the cities, two for farmers (to also help keep them on the farms), and three for minorities. It averages out to about 1.7-1.8 kids per family. There biggest issue is the great leap forward pushed families up to 3-4 kids, their baby boom. The one child rule was so that all those large families didn’t have large families in turn.

[Dr. Sivana]

I’ve been hearing about the one child policy for decades, but the Chinese population doesn’t seem to have dropped. True, its growth has been arrested, but it seems to be pretty static. That means that, despite the policy, the average birth rate must be close to or slightly above the replacement rate of 2.0 per couple. So what gives? Is it only enforced on the non-connected?

That is a good question. The answer has to do with demographics. Before the one-child policy, there was a big spike in the population, analogous to our baby boom, but later. That generation is the one having one child per, but they themselves have not been dying off yet. Lets say you have 500 million in 1959 and 20 years later you have 900 million, a growth of 400 million. Then the one child policy is applied and pretty ruthlessly enforced, with little immigration or emigration. Nearly half of those children (the girls) born between 1979 and 1990 would have their one child by now and they are now between 23 and 49 years old. In fact, the grandchildren of the first wave would be being born.

In the meantime, you have increasing life expectancy, so only a portion of those people around in 1959 (the original 500 million) have died off. The rest, mostly 58 and under, are mostly alive. So, if I took a stab at realistic sounding numbers:

Say, 350 million of the original 500 million are still alive (70%) (Most Chinese in 1959 would have been younger than average after wars and low life expectancy of the era in the region).

Say 95% of 400 million more born between 1959 and 1979 are still alive and living in Red China. (380 million)

Say that nearly 96% of the women (45% of the Chinese population IN THAT AGE BRACKET)have had their one child. (400 million x 48% = 196 million)

Say that 90% of the women born during the early years of the one child policy (1979-1984) have also had their one child (At this point women are more like 45% of the age bracket, so guesstimate .45 * 30 million = 13.5 million

My numbers, of course, are way off compared the actual population, but it is an example of how you can have such a policy for nearly 30 years and maintain a stable population number. The problem begins when the cultural revolution babies start dying off. Their population is aging, though not nearly as fast as Japan's. In fifty years, it will show up in the numbers. It will show up in an old demographic far sooner. Imperialism is one way to stave off the consequnces of this. (Or, abandonment of the policy in the first place.)

[Pearls Before Swine]

Three for minorities? Aren’t they all Chinese (I’m aware that isn’t a completely uniform demographic)? And don’t the Chinese traditionally look down on foreigners?

[tbw2]

Some groups like the Urgurs and other minorities in Western China are allowed three children. Except Tibetans, who are allowed just one, unless they’re married to a Chinese (usually male). Then it’s two.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Very interesting. I bet that if the Uighur community provides a haven for signficant Islamist terrorism this would be a policy subject to revision.

And, one for Tibet is incredibly harsh, and must be part of their policy to slowly obliterate the distinctive Tibetan culture.