Family structure
Firstly, the family structure in china honor the patrilineal
descent system, where a child's lineage and descent is calculated from his
father only. Men are the only ones that can inherit family membership and
family land or other inheritance in this type of system. Males are responsible
for maintaining, providing for and protecting of the family. They are also
given all the decision-making power. However, China are biased against females
where china was extreme in that a woman was quite explicitly removed from the
family of her birth (her niángjiā 娘家) and affiliated to
her husband's family (her pójiā 婆家), a transition always
very clearly symbolized in local marriage customs. In china, a woman was said
to engage in “three followings” (sāncóng ): “At home to follow her father,
at marriage to follow her husband, after marriage to follow her son” (zài jiā
cóng fù, chū jià cóng fū, hūn hòu cóng zǐ 在家要从父, 出家要从夫,
婚后从子).
In china, they used many expressions to refer “overweighting males and underweighting
females” (zhòng nán qīng nǚ 重男轻女).
They range from the blunt (like referring to a daughter as “goods on which one
loses money” —shíběnhuò 蚀本货) to the fatalistic (like the
little girls’ plaintive jingle, “Marry a chicken, follow a chicken; marry a dog,
follow a dog” —jià jī suí jī, jià gŏu, suí gŏu 嫁鸡随鸡，嫁狗随狗).
Hence, in china, females stay in the home to take care of the home, the
children, and the rest of the family, giving the impression that females are
weak and useless, resulting many chinese couples not wanting to have a female
child.
Secondly, the family structure follow the patriarchal system
where the family is hierarchically orgainsed and No two members of a Chinese
family were equal in authority. "A state cannot have two monarchs," a
widely cited proverb held, "or a family two heads" (Guó wú èr jūn,
jiā wú èr zhŭ 国无二君，家无二主.) Officially at least,
(1) senior generations were superior to junior generations, (2) older people
were superior to younger ones, and (3) men were superior to women. ("Men
are high, women low" — nán zūn, nǚ bēi 男尊女卑— said another old
proverb.)
One child policy
the one-child policy is the population control policy of the People's Republic of China, which allows
families to have only one healthy child. However, there are exceptions where
families can have a second child if the first child is a girl or is disabled ,if
one of the parents is an only child and if both parents are ethnic minorities.
china’s provinces each charge varying fines for those who break the one-child
policy, but the penalty is almost always several times a worker’s average
annual income, making it prohibitively expensive to break one-child policy
rules. This policy has implicated an increase in forced abortions, female
infanticide and underreporting of female births, which china’s sex imbalance
could be a possible cause.
After the introduction of the one-child policy, the fertility rate in China fell from
2.63 births per woman in 1980 to 1.61 in 2009. However, the policy itself
is probably only partially responsible for the reduction in the total fertility
rate. China has a long tradition of son
preference due to widespread remnants of Confucianism,
to prefer sons over daughters. Sons are preferred as they provide the primary
financial support for the parents in their retirement, and a son's parents
typically are better cared for than his wife's. In addition, Chinese tradition
holds that daughters, on their marriage, become primarily part of the groom's
family. Male-to-female sex ratios in the current Chinese population are high in
both rural and urban areas
Sex ratio at birth in mainland China, males per 100 females,
1980–2010.
The sex ratio at
birth (between male and female births) in mainland
China reached 117:100 and remained steady between 2000 and
2013, substantially higher than the natural baseline, which ranges between
103:100 and 107:100. Monica Das Gupta showed that whether or not females
"go missing" is determined by the existing sex composition of the
family into which they are conceived. Girls with no older sisters have similar
chances of survival as boys. Girls conceived in families that already have a
daughter, experience steeply higher probabilities of being aborted or of dying
in early childhood. Gupta claims that cultural factors provide the overwhelming
explanation for the "missing" females."The
disparity in the sex ratio at birth increases dramatically after the first
birth, for which the ratios remained steadily within the natural baseline over
the 20 year interval between 1980 and 1999. Thus, a large majority of couples
appear to accept the outcome of the first pregnancy, whether it is a boy or a
girl. If the first child is a girl, and they are able to have a second child,
then a couple may take extraordinary steps to assure that the second child is a
boy.
Human rights violation
The one-child policy has been challenged in principle and in
practice for violating a human right to determine the size of one's
own family. According to a 1968 proclamation of the International Conference on
Human Rights, "Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and
responsibly the number and the spacing of their children." A 2001 report
exposed that a quota of 20,000 abortions and sterilizations was set for Huaiji County in Guangdong Province
in one year due to reported disregard of the one-child policy. The effort
included using portable ultrasound devices to identify abortion candidates in
remote villages. Earlier reports also showed that women as far along as 8.5
months pregnant were forced to abort by injection of saline solution. There
were also reports of women in their ninth month of pregnancy, or already in
labour, having their children killed whilst in the birth canal or immediately
after birth.
In 2002, China outlawed the use of physical force to make a woman submit to an
abortion or sterilization, but it is not entirely enforced. In the execution of
the policy, many local governments still demand abortions if the pregnancy
violates local regulations, or even force abortions on women violating the
policy. One such case, Feng Jianmei, gained
international attention after the family posted graphic pictures of the aborted
fetus online. Feng's case has been credited for renewing public debate on the
one-child policy both in and out of China.
4-2-1 problem
one adult child was left with having to provide support for
his or her two parents and four grandparents. Called the "4-2-1
Problem", this leaves the older generations with increased chances of
dependency on retirement funds or charity in order to receive support. If
personal savings, pensions, or state welfare fail, most senior citizens would
be left entirely dependent upon their very small family or neighbours for
assistance. If, for any reason, the single child is unable to care for their
older adult relatives, the oldest generations would face a lack of resources
and necessities. In response to such an issue, all provinces have decided that
couples are allowed to have two children if both parents were only children
themselves
spoiling children
Some parents may over-indulge their only child. The media
referred to the indulged children in one-child families as "little
emperors" who are less trustworthy and less independent. Since
the 1990s, some people have worried that this will result in a higher tendency
toward poor social communication and cooperation skills among the new
generation, as they have no siblings at home. this greatly improved purchasing
power coupled with excessive pampering of only children is the cause of
increased spending on children. From toys to clothes, parents shower their
child in material goods and give in to every demand. it is common for children
to be the "best-dressed members of their families." Parents put immense pressure on these
children to succeed and compete academically by parents push their only child to
educational extremes from early age. Parents also plan their child’s future ,resulting
their child to be unable to think and make decision on their own. Moreover,
with the less competition in the job society, many young adults will decide to
change job often when they are slightly unhappy with their job since their
parents pamper them a lot.
Benefits
Chinese authorities consider
the policy a great success in helping to implement China's current economic
growth. The reduction in the fertility rate and thus population growth has
reduced the severity of problems that come with overpopulation, like epidemics, slums,
overwhelmed social services (such as health, education, law enforcement), and
strain on the ecosystem from abuse of fertile land and production of high
volumes of waste. China on population control helps provide a better health
service for women and a reduction in the risks of death and injury associated
with pregnancy. At family planning offices, women receive free contraception
and pre-natal classes that contributed to the policy's success in two respects.
First, the average Chinese household expends fewer resources, both in terms of
time and money, on children, which gives many Chinese more money with which to
invest. Second, since young Chinese can no longer rely on children to care for
them in their old age, there is an impetus to save money for the future.
