Movie Review ~ One Child Nation

One Child Nation

Documentary done by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang,

This movie focuses in on the One Child policy in China and the detrimental outcome of having such a policy in place. First off, I had heard of the policy that China started in 1979 and was in full affect in their constitution by 1983. I was under the impression that if a family had a girl they could try again for a boy with a fine. I was not prepared for the reality of the situation. I knew it was a huge issue with female children as in America there was an influx of Chinese born US adopted girls. Even in small town USA middle of nowhere still had at least a child adopted this way. What I, nor I could safely assume, the parents of those children knew was the full affect of how they were able to adopt them. What was really happening in China and the aftereffects of this policy.

This documentary opened my eyes to what living in a communist country would and could potential be like. It brought up the questions that women all over the world wrestle with daily: This is my body why is someone else trying to decide what I can and can not do with it? The things that happened to the women in China is unspeakable. They had forced sterilizations, babies were stolen from them, twins were separated. They had to decide to leave their babies on the side of the road in hopes someone would take them or sell them to traffickers. Wondering 30 years later what had become of their daughters. The sheer number of children that were adopted overseas during this time is heart wrenching according to this documentary it was over 130,000 children. Those were the ones that were adopted there is no telling how many were aborted in their 8 or 9 months, or killed after birth by the midwife, or left on the side of the road to die. This documentary did a fantastic job at opening my eyes to those who were survivors both still in China and those living in the United States wrestling with the aftermath of what happened.

This film is an excellent documentary that just touches on the surface of the issues that China has faced the last 30 years. I am very interested now in seeing what the results of this policy will have long term. And in case you might be wondering China now has adopted Two Children one for the elder to play with, and one so that the elders can be taken care of.