One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment by Mei Fong review – a harrowing examination of social control

This moving account of the single-child policy reveals its impact on China and the world

The Chinese language has no word for “brother” or “sister”. Instead, you are a jiejie (older sister) or meimei (younger sister); a gege (older brother) or didi (younger brother). Hierarchy and family relationships have been central to Chinese society for millennia. But in the past four decades, this central fact has changed utterly. For the majority of the population, siblings have become a theoretical concept. In 1980, China implemented perhaps the boldest experiment in social control of a population in world history: it declared that, with some important exceptions, Chinese couples would be permitted to have only one child each.

Related: China ends one-child policy after 35 years

Continue reading...