From Resisting to “Embracing?” the One-Child Rule: Understanding New Fertility Trends in a Central China Village

Abstract

From its initiation in 1979, China's one-child policy has been controversial. Most critiques on the stringent birth control policy in rural China still focus on the resistance framework and there is very little research on whether Chinese peasant families are changing their fertility preferences and behaviours when confronting both the state birth control policy and the rapidly changing social and economic environment. Based on recent ethnographic study in a central China village, this article seeks to explore new fertility trends that indicate the shift from “active resistance against” to “conscious decision for” the one-child limit among rural families. In particular, it discusses the newly emerging social, economic and demographic factors that may have played a role in this fertility shift, and its social implications for the central tenet of son preference in Chinese culture and the norm of child-rearing as a means of securing old age support among rural families.

Different places, different stories: A study of the spatial heterogeneity of county-level fertility in China

“…For example, scholars disagree on what are the major driving forces of fertility decline (Cai 2010; Lavely and Freedman 1990; Li, Zhang, and Zhu 2005). Also, results from quantitative analyses based on publicly available data do not entirely match with those from in-depth fieldwork studies in terms of the roles that specific variables (such as education and economic development) play in affecting fertility behaviors (Greenhalgh and Winckler 2005; Harrell et al 2011; Peng 2010; Qian 1997; Short and Zhai 1998; Zhang 1999, 2007). …”

“…As a result, one may observe distinctive fertility behaviors in certain places that differ from general patterns. For example, ethnographic research conducted by Zhang (2007) found a reversal relationship between fertility rates and economic development levels. In areas where the economic development level is high, wealthy families tend to have more children since they are able to pay the fines, while relatively poor rural families tend to have only one child due to the concern of high costs.…”

“…Previous literature reveals that the relationship between economic development and fertility decline is not universal, in the sense that the effect is contingent on the microdynamics between pronatalist social norms and antinatalist fertility laws (e.g., Greenhalgh and Winckler 2005; Peng 2010; Zhang 2007). Even in vast rural areas where fertility policies are generally considered to be lenient, the magnitudes and types of fertility incentives and regulations that couples are exposed to differ from place to place.…”

“…On the other hand, some studies have found that small-family ideals have begun to emerge in some rural places such that rural families tend to actively seek only one child, even if they are permitted to have an additional child (Zhang, 2007; Greenhalgh and Winckler 2005; Merli and Smith 2002). To this end, we have H1b: Fertility behaviors vary extensively in rural areas, such that that rural residency is not always an indicator of high fertility levels.…”

When Formal Laws and Informal Norms Collide: Lineage Networks versus Birth Control Policy in China

“…The timing of the surveys is pertinent for the current analysis because peasant resistance to the onechild policy was still at its peak level in the early 1990s. In recent years more and more young rural couples start to embrace the birth control policy and want a smaller family (Zhang 2007).…”