1976: beijing
family planning
Child #1: i have a host of older brothers and sisters,
and also have a younger sister named Xiaofeng.
i am not a good talker, and merely make random remarks.
Father and mother are busy at their work;
our family affairs are in a complete jumble;
older brothers and sisters are of no avail.
They bother mother until she is truly frustrated.
i, Xiaogang, am like a little sheep;
i run around as i please and bump into everything.
My little friends tattle on me;
so when i get home, i shall surely get slapped.
You who are called Xiaoan, let me ask you:
Why is your family able to study and to criticize
While my family from day to night is always in one big mess,
and is always in a meaningless uproar?
Child #2: Family planning is good.
it is beneficial to grasping revolution and promoting production.
let us study MarxismleninismMao Zedong Thought,
diligently, fervently, and with a strong will for struggle,
like a dashing general, for the Three great Revolutions.
it is beneficial to preparedness for war and preparedness against natural disasters;
The national economic plan will be guaranteed;
Mothers and children will be healthy, their bodies strong;
Future revolutionary generations will grow up hardy and vigorous.
dear uncles and aunts, listen to what we have to say:
Remember in your hearts Chairman Mao’s teachings;
You must do well in carrying out family planning,
and contribute strength to consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat.
From an article published by the People’s Health Press. This dialog was published as a skit meant
to be read by children in kindergarten. Premier Zhou Enlai had instituted fertility-limitation
measures in 1970, setting the maximum number of children a family could have at two. The one-child policy was introduced in 1978, with the hope that China’s population would not exceed 1. 2
billion by 2000; a census from the year counted 1,265,830,000. A study released in 2009 showed a
severe sex-ratio imbalance, with 32 million more males than females under the age of twenty.
