Nation of Onlys
It was a TV commercial for some kind of home decor product - a special wood-like floor covering. Youngish couple on the new floor and child playing happily near them - a typically warm and appealing domestic scene designed to sell a product.
I was channel surfing in the Beijing hotel, bored with CNN Asia, uninterested in whatever HBO was running and out of English language options. Watching CCTV (Chinese Central Television Network) was a temporarily amusing puzzle, trying to divine what the content was.
It wasn’t until after the 30 second commercial ended that I realized what was different. One child. A comparable spot on American TV would have had two children, and probably a dog.
Naturally, the commercial spots reflect an idealized reality for potential consumers. And that reality can only include one child in China.
As I write this, the annual fourth of July neighborhood parade has just passed by our south Minneapolis home. It always starts with a fire truck from the local fire house and passes by in the late morning. As it appeared, I happened to be doing a google search on the One Child Policy in China (this obsession will pass, I feel sure of it...) so I was particularly aware, as I watched from the front step, of the ratio of young children to adults in this all-American scene.
And I wondered again what must be the unintended consequences of essentially mandating that the country be populated by only children, as has been the case in China since 1979. I thought particularly of the schools and the impact on the community of children in schools all across urban China, where the rule applies.
Now, some of my favorite people are only children, including our 21 year-old son. But any experienced school person can tell you that, if nothing else, the only children in the class tend to arrive, by definition, with a higher-stakes burden. They generally mean, literally, everything to their parents. This can make it more difficult, on occasion, for parents of "onlys" to see the normal trials and tribulations of growing up in the context of the long term learning process.
Perhaps the very fact that all are from the same experience base in this regard would have a kind of moderating effect. Or not. (see June 18 entry Sorting it Out for one Beijing principal’s perspective on the effects of the policy.)