Meet doctor j, the daughter of Doctors J and J, born December 17, weighing in at 3.8 kilograms, a statuesque 52 centimetres and with a fabulous head of dark hair that I would give a piece of my other thumb for. Her English name is Joy which so appropriate for this time of year. She is a very compelling reason to return to Harbin for a visit.
Nǎinai Nonie (grandma eh!) has been providing sage baby raising advice to Janie, but sadly it is about 35 years out of date. Then we had two diaper options, cloth and disposable, now they have dozens of options but still haven’t come up with a diaper that changes itself.
Yéye Brett (grampa eh!) has also been free with fatherly advice, but it too is ancient news and has only succeeded in scaring the crap out of poor Justin especially when I described a vasectomy to him.
As newly proud Jiānádà zǔfùmǔ (Canadian grandparents eh!), we have had to revise our Grandparents Handbook VII as it may not apply to our grandchildren born in China. One thing I am pretty sure of is that babies are made the same way here in China as they are in the rest of the world but that is where the similarities start to drift apart. The “One Child” rule has had some bearing on those differences, that and the 3000 years of history that has preceded the wondrous birth of our third sūnzi (grandchild).
The history of the “One Child” rule goes back only a few decades having been implemented on September 25, 1980. Like any good law, exemptions to the rule were extensive and today, less than 40% of the population are actually affected by the rule. With a declining infant mortality rate and encouragement by the government to have children, the population of China had almost doubled from 1949 to 1976 (540 million to 940 million). The thinking was that a large population would empower China.
Around the middle of the 70”s it became apparent that perhaps uncontrolled population growth was not the way to go, so the “One Child” rule was dreamt up to put the brakes on it. The poorly thought out rule led to infanticide and abandonment, something not uncommon in societies where a male child is perceived to have more value than a female child.
This policy along with a declining birth rate in the general population has created some incongruities that are now being felt. The current world ratio for male to females is 103/100 while for the last ten years China’s ratio has been around 117/100. That ratio is very visible to us here at HIT where the men clearly outnumber women by a wide amount. The party has also come to realize that with the declining birth rate, their ability to support its burgeoning senior population will become very difficult. As well, they are beginning to experience labour shortages in some areas of the country.
But new winds are starting to blow threw China. At the recent Party Plenary session, a decision was made to relax the “One Child” rule. If either the man or women is a product of a one child family, they may have a second child. As new parents, I asked Justin if they would consider a second child. Fresh from changing a really messy one, was probably not the best time to ask him that question.
It took Nonie and I nearly a year after our first born to make a commitment to have a second one. 35 years later, I can still smell some of the worse ones. Perhaps I will ask the question again in a few months.
There are some interesting cultural differences in how things are done with babies and new mothers here in China then in the West so stay tuned for a future blog, “Made in China”.
No comments:
Post a Comment