There are some moments in history that seem so extreme and so profoundly cruel that we question whether or not they could be real. More likely, we change the channel or become desensitized to the constant barrage of everything wrong in the world. It’s easy to look at history and think of it as simply that, history. Sometimes it’s easier to remember that our darkest times are out of reach and far behind us.
In her debut film, One Child Nation, director Nanfu Wang reminds us that history may be past but it is always distant. Her film is a jarring reminder of regret and the impact that a mere blip in history can have. In a generation, memory can fade. Nanfu Wang wants to make sure that we never forget.
China’s One-Child Policy, in Context
To briefly summarize, between the years of 1979 and 2015 China enforced a strict one-child policy that only allowed Chinese families one child. The policy was created in response to a boom in China’s perceived fertility levels and population preventative efforts are thought to have started as early as 1970. In addition, the policy was briefly modified in the 1980s to allow rural families the opportunity to have another child, if their first-born was a girl.
Director Nanfu Wang was inspired to take on her upbringing during China’s one-child era after becoming a mother, herself. The film is a meditation on the detrimental impact of the policy, as well as an exploration of what forces are the most compelling. Is it nationalism or parental love? One Child Nation gets down to the heartbreaking truth of the matter through a series of interviews with healthcare professionals, family members, protesters, and individuals evolved in the corrupt underbelly of state-run adoptions.
The revelations of One Child Nation are truly shocking. In terms of more localized consequences, Wang is able to uncover the blemishes on the souls of her childhood community and her own family.
Gender becomes a power player in Wang‘s narrative in One Child Nation. Chinese tradition places heavy favor on boy children and generations of community members openly discuss the desire for sons and the disappointment of being cursed with daughters. Wang‘s own first name, Nanfu, means “man pillar” and was a symbol of her parents’ hope for a son. In fact, her being a first-born daughter would impact her life in ways that she couldn’t predict.
Nanfu Wang‘s parents were successfully able to convince local officials to let them try again for a boy when Wang was five. They were successful in this enterprise and Wang would grow up as one of the only children in her village with a sibling. She recalls the feeling of living in a two-child household while growing up during a time of such restrictive and aggressive one-child propaganda.
For other members of her community, the shadow of the one-child policy was something more severe. An artist changes the direction of his art when he discovers fetus graveyards amidst the garbage. A healthcare worker that was forced to perform as many as twenty forced sterilizations a day and believes she is responsible for the late-term killing of as many as 80,000 babies, now dedicates her life to helping infertile couples conceive as penance.
Wang‘s own uncle tells the story of leaving his infant daughter in the marketplace to die so that he could try again for a son. From all of this rose resistance and those who sought to help, but these brave souls were up against something much more sinister and far-reaching: The Chinese government and the intense nationalism of the populace.
Nationalism’s Chokehold in China
As one absorbs the horrors in One Child Nation, it is difficult to imagine that these policies and the ruthless methods by which they are carried out were so readily endured by the population. Particularly, when one examines the film through a Western mindset, where individual freedoms and rights are so crucial to political rhetoric and perceived identity. However, it does not take long for two overarching concepts to emerge and reveal themselves as the cornerstones of the sociopolitical conversation: the depth of Chinese tradition and nationalism as the definition of Chinese patriotism.
Throughout the film, one finds images of national pride, family, and tradition dancing very closely alongside each other. A military demonstration is juxtaposed with large urban murals of smiling families. Traditional Chinese arts, like dance and theatre, are set to songs with lyrics emphasizing the supreme wisdom of the government and enforcing the virtue of the one-child policy. Propaganda is rampant to the point that it seems like a parody of itself, but the impact and consequences are all too real.
Regardless of who Wang was interviewing, or the pain caused by a particular order or action, the answer was always the same. Why did they do this? Why did they accept the policy? Because it was for country. Because it was strictly enforced. Because it was their duty to see it out.
It haunts this critic to recollect how many times an elder would softly utter “The policy was very strict” before moving on in the discussion. There was more than just influence at work. This policy and, by further extension, the government was holding its people in a choke-hold.
A cornerstone of this criticism of nationalism comes in the form of Wang‘s exploration of corruption in Chinese orphanages. As mentioned previously, there were those who did not passively witness the suffering and made an effort to help. Infant smuggling became an income stream for the very poorest in Chinese society. Individuals would collect the discarded babies and take them to state-run orphanages, as a means of protecting the child’s life.
During the peak of the one-child policy era, China finally opened itself up to foreign adoptions and a seedy enterprise was born. The state would pay a sort of “finder’s fee” to those who brought in babies, they’d pay a small bribe to local police to sign off on falsified finding reports, and then the government would make roughly $10,000 per child adopted out to a foreign family. In this way, the government began to profit off of the barbarism of its own policy and it is implied in the film that state officials would even stoop so low as to kidnapping children from families.
The one-child policy left many unexpected cars on the nation and its people. From reducing the population so much that the country can no longer keep up with its own industrial needs, to two generations of adopted children who may never know the truth of where they come from due to this large scale government scam.
One Child Nation: An Example
It’s impossible to watch One Child Nation without dwelling on the obvious political overtones. As obvious as the film is in its criticism of the Chinese policy, one might wonder what the actual politics of the film are. Once again, coming at One Child Nation from a Western perspective, one might be left to wonder where the message of the film applies in a broader, global context.
This film is, without doubt, a criticism on blind acceptance of nationalism. It not only calls into question government authority but faces it head-on and attacks the concept of prioritizing national agenda over human freedoms and life. In this way, it is an incredibly timely piece that absolutely must be seen.
On a note that hits more closely to home, the impression that the film leaves you with is a reminder that women’s bodies have always been the victim of political agenda and the battlefield of choice for government control and moral authority. Be it forced sterilization and abortions in the East or restrictions on women’s autonomy in the West, government overreach and attacks on freedom begin with women. In the mind of this critic, One Child Nation is a warning and a harbinger of the doom that befalls a nation consumed by nationalism.
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