I felt that it grounded the story and made all those traditions and superstitions all the more real. Unlike most people who read this book and reviewed it, I enjoyed Fong's story about her miscarriage and how certain aspects of Chinese culture had affected her life. There are so many aspects to China's One Child policy and what makes it what it is, and Fong sets out to disentangle the many threads that make up this subversive policy. Well, this was a relatively fascinating read. An exceptional piece of on-the-ground journalism, One Child humanizes the policy that defined China and warns that the ill-effects of its legacy will be felt across the globe. Drawing on eight years spent documenting its repercussions, she reveals a dystopian legacy of second children refused documentation by the state, only children supporting their parents and grandparents, and villages filled with ineligible bachelors. It may once have seemed a shortcut to riches, but it has had a profound effect on society in modern China.Ĭombining personal portraits of families affected by the policy with a nuanced account of China’s descent towards economic and societal turmoil, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mei Fong reveals the true cost of this most controversial of policies. Now, with its economy faltering just as it seemed poised to become the largest in the world, the Chinese government has brought an end to its one-child policy. For over three decades, China exercised unprecedented control over the reproductive habits of its billion citizens.
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