The document discusses how China's one-child policy and massive rural-urban migration are contributing to significant social change in China. The one-child policy has led to an entire "1980s generation" that is growing up as single children who are potentially being spoiled. At the same time, rural-urban migration means many children are left behind or live apart from their working parents, facing behavioral and educational issues. Both trends are challenging China's traditionally collective culture and may increase individualism going forward.

1. The One-Child Policy and Social Change
by Larry Troy, Jun 16, 2008, at 11:13 am
See more of my photos of children and families in China on my flickr page.
I went on this trip to learn first-hand about China, as much as could be learned in sponsored tour
of 10 days! I learned an incredible amount, especially by observing life as best I could in Beijing,
Xi’an, Hangzhou, and Shanghai, and talking to our tour guides, other people I met who spoke
English, and the faculty and students at Peking and Fudan Universities. I’ve decided to narrow
my blog entries to specific thoughts on specific issues.
One of the things that most impressed me was how the one-child policy combines with massive
rural-urban migrations to create the potential for significant change in China. The one-child
policy is one of the first things that American friends and acquaintances brought up to me when I
mentioned that I was going to China. Most Americans view this policy with horror, and the large
number of child deaths in the recent earthquake only reinforces the antipathy. “Oh my, their only
child died, and they can’t have another. How tragic!” Of course, I agree about the tragedy, but
those of us aware of the massive problems of feeding, housing, and employing the growing
Chinese population recognize that something had to be done, and, as our own politicians like to
say at election time, “Someone has to make the hard decisions.”
So my sense from my visit is that the Chinese largely understand and accept this policy, and go
about their business of living. All over China, I saw mothers and a child, fathers and a child,
couples with a child, grandparents with a child. Single children were carried on bicycles and
motorbikes in rush hour traffic every morning and evening. Tourist sites were overwhelmed with
families with one child.
The result of all this, in the words of one of the sociologists we met at Peking University, is the
“1980s generation.” Policy makers, scholars, and the general public seem to be concerned that
the new generations are being spoiled! Their wishes are being catered to; they are only interested
in new technology; they are too individualistic; they don’t understand what “we” went through in
the Cultural Revolution (a topic for another blog); they take their privileges for granted.China
Daily, the English language newspaper (or propaganda sheet!), reported on 6 June 2008 that the
People’s Congress in the province of Liaoning drafted legislation making it “an obligation for
adult children to contact or visit their parents regularly….Government employees, who fail to do
so, will face sanctions by their respective agencies.” The newspaper reported that they expect the
draft to become law by the end of the year. The fact that such a law is being considered,
mentioned in an English language periodical, and is expected to be passed, shows the depth of
concern.
Of course some of these sentiments are quite common when families are caught up in social
change. Similar reactions are often expressed within immigrant families in America and
worldwide. The notion that the young don’t understand what the old went through, or what
elders sacrificed, is a common theme in ethnic literature and scholarship (Japanese-American,
African-American, Hispanic-American, white-ethnic-American, etc).
What is different about China, however, is that many seem to fear that the centuries-old,
collectively focused, Chinese culture is at risk. It’s almost as if they are asking, “How will the
revolution be continued, when we are raising little Westerners?”I, of course, don’t have an
answer to this question, but it may create the conditions for cultural change beyond the grasp of
the planned social and economic changes that Chinese leaders are presenting. The new
generations are privileged beyond the dreams of their parents, and with affluence comes cultural
change. I don’t see how the clock can be turned back.

2. Rural-urban migration issues in China illuminate a different facet of these issues, and this
migration is vast. For example, we were told that Shanghai now has 19 million people, and that
over 5 million are migrant workers. In China, you are “registered” in the province of your
birth. Moving is easier now than historically; one can move in search of employment and, if
successful, one’s employer helps with a residency visa in the new province that might last for 1
or 3 years. After that temporary period, a permanent visa can be obtained if one has skills needed
in the new province. As in most migration streams, these tend to follow kinship linkages.
Nevertheless, migrant workers are presenting significant challenges for the new urban
economies. It is startling to me that every student who spoke to us at Fudan University was
interested in studying some aspect of the generational effects of this migration. Some married
couples migrate to the urban areas, but leave their children in the provinces with their
grandparents. Others couples migrate with their children. In the former case, parents look
forward to the time that the family can get back together, after the children have finished college
and joined them. In the latter case, the Chinese students were reporting that they never see their
parents, since both are working all the time, and actually feel closer to their grandparents back in
the rural provinces. Without the attention of their parents, many young people are getting
involved with various delinquencies, such as drugs, alcohol, sex, and crime. The generation gap
is thus exacerbated. To make matters worse, public education is funded at the province level, and
municipalities like Shanghai are reluctant to provide education through high school for the
children of migrants. These children, therefore, will have to return to the provinces for high
school education, or drop out and enter the shadowy world of the informal economy.
Of course, these generational migration problems would be occurring regardless of the one-child
policy. But that policy highlights significant contradictory results in today’s China.Children born
to urban families are “being spoiled.” Children born to migrant workers, on the other hand, are
facing the difficult situation of being cast into the urban world with fewer controls on their
behavior, and an uncertain sense of belongingness. Both cases are creating a cultural change
large enough for attempts to legislate morality (to use an American political phrase), and will
likely lead to greater individualism in a society that has long prided itself on a collective
mentality.
http://thesocietypages.org/china/2008/06/16/the-one-child-policy-and-social-change/