“Flight MH370: Heartbreak for China's 'orphaned' parents,” is an article written by Tom Phillips for The New Zealand Gerald (NZG). The article talks about one of the impacts of China’s family planning rules, implemented in 1979, but formally instituted in 1980. Due to the high population in China, families are only allowed to have one child, with few exceptions. Events like the recent tragedy of flight MH370 bring to light issues that other ways would not make international news, such as China’s crisis as a result of the one child law and the impact it is having on the aging population, when they lose their only child. There are an estimated one million so-called "shidu" families in China, with state media reporting that around 76,000 new families are "orphaned" each year. "When you lose your only child, it feels like the sky has fallen in," said a mother in Shanghai, who lost her only daughter and husband in a 2012 car accident. The (NZG) article provides an insight into the struggle a shidu family experience when their only child is lost. Not only have they lost their only child,...
Families are becoming more diverse and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some people consider families to be strictly biological, while others consider people they love to be their family. Although two-parent families, also known as a nuclear family are the majority, one-parent families are becoming more common in today’s society. A sole-parent is considered to be a parent without a partner or spouse who is the primary care giver of one or more children in a household (Ministry of Social Development, 2010). From the age of 14 onward I was raised by m...
Firstly, the relationship expectations in Chinese customs and traditions were strongly held onto. The daughters of the Chinese family were considered as a shame for the family. The sons of the family were given more honour than the daughters. In addition, some daughters were even discriminated. “If you want a place in this world ... do not be born as a girl child” (Choy 27). The girls from the Chinese family were considered useless. They were always looked down upon in a family; they felt as if the girls cannot provide a family with wealth. Chinese society is throwing away its little girls at an astounding rate. For every 100 girls registered at birth, there are 118 little boys in other words, nearly one seventh of Chinese girl babies are going missing (Baldwin 40). The parents from Chinese family had a preference for boys as they thought; boys could work and provide the family income. Due to Chinese culture preference to having boys, girls often did not have the right to live. In the Chinese ethnicity, the family always obeyed the elder’s decision. When the family was trying to adapt to the new country and they were tryin...
“She had never said it was love. Neither had he. They were shy. They had been unsure. Now, there would be no time for love. It was in the moment of parting that she knew she loved him” (Yang 21). Love exists as an emotion that persists to be challenging to comprehend, but once one feels it, it seems problematic to let go of it. Kao Kalia Yang wrote the book The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir, which tells of the anguish the Hmong people faced in their excursion from Laos to the United States. Yang uses her unique writing style to present her topic in an enlightening way to her readers. Yang uses the story of her parents to convey the sufferings of the Hmong people and their journey. Her parents make a fitting example of a typical Hmong family fighting to survive and find love in a time of turmoil. Although Kao Kalia’s parents met in unfortunate circumstances and had no home to live in, love kept them and their family together, even when times seemed their darkest.
The adoption process can take more than one year and cost a family up to $18,000. Couples wait anxiously for the government’s approval, then the government assigns them a baby. Couples are given nothing more than a picture of the baby. They don’t have the child’s medical information, who the parents are, etc. Finally, three days after the arrival in Beijing, the couples get to meet their baby for the first time. Under Chairman Mao in the ‘50s and ‘60s, China’s population exploded. By 1980, Mao’s successors limited families to having only one child. Sometimes, families were allowed to have two. This was the largest human population control effort in human history. China’s population is coming under control, but there are consequences no one intended. Couples feel that they must have a boy because boys often carry on the family name, provide work and they stay with their parents at old age. Possibly, over 100,000 baby girls are abandoned every year. Many of them will end up in an orphanage. Today, 1in 4 children adopted overseas come from China. The babies adopted by Americans are only a fraction of the millions of girls believed to be missing from China’s population. While the number of girls are being giving away, the number of boys are becoming way out of proportion. Today, boys greatly out number girls and its only getting worse. This relates to cultural relativism,
Children all over the world get to play with their siblings and talk to them when they feel lonely. In China, children are suffering because they don’t have a brother or sister to talk to. When their parents are at work, they feel lonely and depressed. Xiao Xuan said that “I used to cut myself on my wrist after being yelled at by my mom and dad because I didn’t know who I should talk to or turn to.” This quote from document F written by Jaime Florcruz proves that children are more likely to feel lonely and sad because the one child policy doesn’t allow families to have more kids. Xiao Xuan gave her opinion about the policy. She said that she believes the policy is the reason why children are feeling so depressed. An internet survey found that 58 percent of a
Unsuccessful intercultural encounters can sometimes result in tremendous consequences like losing business deals, breaking relationships or even destroying blood ties. In fact, for those who have watched the documentary “Daughter from Danang”, the idea of the last consequence would emerge vividly and hauntingly. The documentary, directed by Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco, tells the reunion between a daughter and her long-lost birth mother. The reunion, which is expected to be an exhilarating experience, unfortunately becomes a painful one with heartbreaking moments. The failure of this reunion can be attributed to a number of reasons, but the most visible one is perhaps the issue of cultural differences. through the lens of intercultural communication,
In 1979, China decided to establish a one child policy which states that couples are only allowed to have one child, unless they meet certain exceptions[1].In order to understand what social impacts the one child policy has created in China it important to evaluate the history of this law. China’s decision to implement a Child policy has caused possible corruption, an abuse of women’s rights, has led to high rates of female feticide, has created a gender ratio problem for China, and has led to specific problems associated with both the elderly and younger generation. Finally, an assessment of why China’s one child policy is important to the United States allows for a full evaluation of the policy.
My parents told me that they had a good life back at China, where they grew up, my father told me that they had a pretty nice life going on back there. Why they came here is beyond my comprehension, my father told me that they had a pretty good income back there, and life was good. Why they came here stumped me and make me thought why and so I asked, they gave me vague answers, but one of the reasons was because my parents were having their first child, which was my big sister. At China, there is this policy, the one child policy, only one child, it’s because China is overpopulated. Furthermore that boys were more favored than girls were. If they were to have an only my sister, I wouldn’t be born today nor my little brother. I later discovered that a good reason why to come here, for opportunity.
Stasch, R. (2003). Separateness as a relation: The iconicity, univocally and creativity of Korowai mother‐in‐law avoidance. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 9(2), 317-337
The story from the vantage point of the family’s position in the family life cycle.
The Family structure has changed significantly in the last fifty years. With higher percentages of marriage ending in divorce, and higher rates of childbearing out of wedlock, single parent families are increasing rapidly. “Seventy percent of all the children will spend all or part of their lives in a single-parent household.” (Dowd) Studies have shown that the children of these families are affected dramatically, both negatively and positively. Women head the majority of single- parent families and as a result, children experience many social problems from growing up without a father. Some of these problems include lack of financial support, and various emotional problems by not having a father around, which may contribute to problems later in life. At the same time, children of single-parent homes become more independent because they learn to take care of themselves, and rely on others to do things for them.
Over population has been a global issue for decades. Medical advances have made it possible for people to live longer and have multiple births, which are just some of the factors contributing to this social problem. Many countries have attempted to battle this issue, but none as intensely as China. China allows the government to have full control over family planning to help reduce the population. In 1979 China created a policy called the "One Child Law" which limits couples to only one child. Although the Chinese government hopes to curb the population boom and benefit society, the One Child Policy has morally questionable results, negative impacts on Chinese society, which should be changed.
family after discovering an abandoned infant while trying to survive on the streets of Tokyo. A
There are many types of family that exists in today’s society, each important to the upbringing of any children of which may be apart of it.
Kamla Raj (2009), vividly states that Single parent family is “A family comprising of a single mother or father having their own dependent children.” Some of the causes of single parent family are as follows: death of one parent, divorce, separation, teenage pregnancy, desertion and sometimes one’s choice.