One child Nation

Greetings again from the darkness. Living in a free society means we get to make many of our own life decisions ... big ones and small. Of course, those decisions are best if managed within generally accepted societal norms. Most of us can't even imagine living under the rule of a government that controls something as personal as the number of kids we can have in our family. Well, in 1979 China imposed a "one child" policy. It stood for more than three decades, until 2015. Filmmakers Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang give us an insider's glimpse of the effects of this policy by talking to the folks who lived through it.

Ms. Wang was born in China and moved to the U.S. Having recently had a baby, she decided to return to her birth country and explore the effects of the policy under which she was born. The social experiment and restrictive policy was instituted out of desperation for a country whose population was booming, yet the economy and food supply were a mess. She shows us the propaganda that was seemingly everywhere - from artwork on neighborhood walls to television shows. The approach was to make people think this was their patriotic duty, and that one child was the idyllic life.

What has never been discussed or studied was the dark side of what the policy meant. It was a system that encouraged boys and downgraded girls. To Ms. Wang's credit, she interviews those on both sides of the policy - those who believe it was necessary and prevented over-population, and those who tell the horror stories of families torn apart, babies abandoned, and the secretive human trafficking that occurred. It's quite devastating to hear these people discuss the personal impact.

The film is autobiographical in nature, in that Ms. Wang is our narrator, often appears on camera, and even interviews her own family members - both to personalize the story and to educate herself. Hearing the story of her grandfather stepping in to prevent sterilization of Nanfu's mother is incredible. We learn she later had a son who became the favored child within the family. And yes, we get details ... very specific details ... on the forced sterilizations and abortions that occurred. One doctor takes credit for 'tens of thousands' of abortions and sterilizations, which Ms. Wang effectively contrasts with America's ever-increasingly restrictive abortion policies. These are the two extremes in preventing women's control of their own bodies.

No top government officials are interviewed, but the implications are quite clear. We even learn of the Utah organization Research-China that researches Asian children adopted during this era, often with the adoptive parents unaware of what was happening in China. We even learn of a set of twins who were separated at birth - one raised in the U.S., the other in China. They have never met. Ms. Wang is quite effective as a documentarian-journalist. Though the film lacks any attempt at style points, the details are astounding. She even shows how the Chinese government transitioned from 'one child' to marketing the benefits of a "two child" household, and how the propaganda machine kicked in. This film is all about impact, and it will deliver a gut-punch.

"As a bookish child, I would come to see the one-child policy as one of the most fascinating and bizarre things about the land of my ancestors, equal parts Aldous Huxley and King Herod." Mei Fong, One Child: The Story of China's Most Radical Experiment

Hearing about China's 1979 one-child policy, lasting 35 years, is one thing. Listening to Asians who lived through it is another. The logic of administrators, some of whom who appear in Nanfu Wang's informative and touching documentary, One Child Nation, almost make sense.

Then you realize who is abandoned and who abducted, mostly girls, and you grimace for them and the families who were torn apart by the rule. Assuredly the females had to go first when authorities discovered families with more than one child because the Asian tradition had always favored males.

Wang having been given a man's name (Nanfu translates into "man" and pillar") shows a deft hand at directing without preaching. She does what I find lacking in too many docs-the other side. Those supporting a one-child policy appear frequently praising it as the salvation of a billion people who would have starved or resorted to cannibalism without the population restraint.

The devastating effects cannot be hidden: babies left in baskets, twins separated forever, human trafficking on a grand scale are just a few of the disorders. Propaganda is always there to reinforce the state's message. Wang presents it all, both good and bad.

But like our dark slavery past or Nazi cleansing, heinous plans to control population never seem to survive. The trail, however, is bloody and harrowing.

Wang has expertly balanced between a depressing subject and an important history lesson: "Don't fool with Mother Nature."

A deeply thought provoking and emotionally confronting look at some the people affected by, or tasked with enforcement of China's one child policy established in 1979. The narrative is mostly driven by the film maker's recollections of her experience, and interviews with her family and others in the area where she grew up.

Excellent film making, use of imagery, narration and examination of a number of different perspectives. Very sensitively approaching the subject, she was able to gently yet persuasively coax some truly shocking admissions of guilt from some of her interviewees. Be prepared for some awful images, but thankfully these scenes are not dwelt on for long as macabre voyeurism was not the intent, but to solidly make the point of what happened to many babies. The story told indicates that the one-child policy was implemented in a harsh, cruel, uncompromising and unforgiving way, although it seems the government eventually recognised the need to protect and find new homes via international adoption programmes for babies that were abandoned by their parents trying to avoid the harsh penalties that they would face.

The only criticism is that there is not much in the way of analysis of the reasons that led up to the point of the introduction of the policy in China. This was hinted at by interviews with her mother, but not much else. For an example of a country that should have, but hasn't introduced population control measures, take a look at India. There, they have well over 100 million people enduring appalling, squalid, miserable poverty and hundreds of millions more struggling daily to eke out a meagre existence. Religious dogma and lack of understanding about environmental impact regarding unrestrained human reproduction are at least partly to blame for the coming crisis of over-population in most parts of the world. If the human race is to avoid large scale wars over food, water and climate change induced migration in the next 30 years, then global population controls need to be carefully introduced and incentivised, but not the way the PRC did it. Seen at NZIFF Wellington by a parent of one child.

To me, the One-Child policy made sense when I was younger and didn't know any better. Fix overpopulation and hearken Malthus by limiting household size. Easy, right? This wasn't America after all; individual liberties are fewer in Communist China...because...isn't it for the good of the collective and not the individual? To my understanding, most of the Chinese were just banding together and willingly sacrificing for their country.

The movie paints an entirely different picture. Yes, there were those believed they were rightful functioning as an extension of the Red policy. Yet, almost every single person that Wang interviews had to preface recollections of the forced sterilizations and abortions with four haunting words: "I had no choice."

This movie investigates the intersect between acting willfully for your country and its opposite: being forced to do what are considered "necessary evils" for the longevity of the country.

Wang is skeptical that any of this suffering needed to happen to begin with. She provides a counter-narrative to the Communist state, wondering if the mountains of abandoned girl babies were left to die in vain. In retrospect, the policy's dubious reasons point more towards a mindless allegiance to leadership than any saving grace from starvation. That's how the movie is presented, at least.

Definitely worth the watch.

As a documentary it was very informative with insight from many that went through, enforced, and were victims of the one child policy. The film however did not take a bipartisan informative stance, which would allow viewers to form their own opinions. The filmmaker used a nations tragedy to promote her own ideas. The documentary focused on the tragedy of families having their babies killed, which the filmmaker managed to turn into a statement about how awful it was for Chinese women to not have a choice in the killing of their babies. She went further and said that the decision should be left to the mother. In other words, a dead baby under a bridge (as depicted in the film) is awful if the mother had no choice in the decision, however if it was her choice, a dead baby under a bridge is acceptable.