From 1979 to 2015, China employed an Orwellian national policy of One-child only per married couple to put a limit on population growth. Forget about Pro-Life v. Pro-Choice; this was a Pro-Death policy. During this time, China went well beyond sterilization and actively practiced infanticide. That isn’t a joke. Part of the strategy to limit the population involved the murder of newborns. By the thousands, maybe millions. Contrary to ill-researched propaganda, neither Pro-Life nor Pro-Choice believes in infanticide; this was some Stalin-like shit going on.
Filmmaker and former Chinese national Nanfu Wang has a brother. She considers herself lucky and with good reason. Tweak a circumstance or two and Nanfu doesn’t exist. After all, it’s no surprise that in a one-child schematic, boys are favored over girls. So, what’s a non-boy to do but return to the village of her parents and interview folks about their one-child experiences.
What hits you first is the saturation of artistic propaganda. Every town had billboards and ads devoted to the program, but that wasn’t enough – the fortunate children survivors sing about the One-child policy in school. The best musicians in the nation recorded pop songs about the greatness of this policy. Imagine half the tracks on Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” being devoted to the genius of the One-child policy and you get a good idea of how deep the government intrusion. Did the Tian’anman Square revolt really have a chance? HA! Of course not.
What hit me hardest about this documentary was neither the propaganda, nor the sterilization, nor the outright slaughter. Excess children would be executed upon birth. One local woman estimates she alone accounted for somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 lives. That was a little tough to take; now multiply that by all the life claimers in all the districts of a country which spans from the Sea of Japan to the Himalayas East to West and from the Indian Ocean to Mongolia South/North and you get a good idea of exactly how many lives were claimed during this purge. And yet, as I mentioned, the sheer volume of life wasn’t as hard hitting as the attitudes of those involved. Among the citizens interviewed, there is a very Manchurian Candidate-like blank repetition of the key points: “China was overrun.” “We would all starve.” “Our leaders made a tough call, but the right one.” Do the people who endured this believe it? Or was this what they told themselves to survive? And who knows how many lives this load of crap wrecked?
And right on cue when Nanfu makes waves, the message goes out, “Keep your thoughts to yourself. You’ll get into trouble if you push this.” Is this population still living in a constant state of fear? You tell me.
Here’s the deal: the One-child policy for three decades of Chinese history affected literally over a billion people. Hundreds of millions do not exist because of this piece of legislation. In that time, millions of Chinese babies were executed. That Auschwitz level horror. That’s Old Testament level horror. Hence, this should have been the most important documentary of 2019. But it isn’t. Why? Two big reasons: 1) There’s a general feeling, right or wrong, that China is indeed overpopulated. The Chinese will be the first to tell you this. 2) The science is missing from this motion picture. One Child Nation is stellar at examining the micro but piss poor at examining the macro. I’m not kidding; I literally got more information out of reading a paragraph overview in Wikipedia than I got in 88 minutes of documentary. To reach the level of stellar reporting, this film needed staggering numbers, a look at the national impact of the decision, and serious consideration of what China would look like without said policy, not just somebody’s aunt being mildly disappointed about how life turned out. I think the documentary also seriously failed in examining vasectomies (or lack thereof) and birth control … did any of that exist during this time or was it just women who were sterilized?
The film suggests without answering a few tough question, and I have some as well, like: How is the One-child policy different from US border policy or “build that wall?” That chant is entirely about, “our country is full, screw you guys.” How is that different from the nation that took hold of One-child and ran with it? In the end, it’s all about a country arbitrarily deciding who lives and who dies. I don’t think China was right then and I don’t think we’re right now. What is freedom about, Americans? Controlling what you can do or controlling what others can do?
In lieu of a song, I have rewritten the “Thriller” album song titles under the One-child policy:
1 Wanna Be Endin’ Somethin’
2 Baby Be Mine, and That’s It
3 The Girl is Mine (Dammit, I Wanted a Boy)
4 (Birth Control) Piller
5 Beat It (I Already Have One)
6 Billie Jean Is Not My Lover (Because the State Said So)
7 Controlling Human Nature
8 P.O.T. (Pretty One Thing)
9 The Lady in My Life (Is Sterile)
Yes, I know this was morbid, but I laugh to keep from crying. China’s One-child policy is truly among the most underrepresented villains in human history.
Rated R, 88 Minutes
Director: Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang
Writer: Chairman Mao
Genre: What happens when governments lack imagination
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Boatrockers
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Propagandists
