CHINA TOPIX

03/28/2024 01:23:06 pm

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China's One-Child Policy Puts More Pressure On Only Children

Zhou Yu

(Photo : REUTERS/CARLOS BARRIA) Zhou Yu, who was born in 1981, poses for a photograph in Shanghai August 28, 2014.

Though China's Communist Party may have staved off an uncontrollable population boom through their one-child policy, it is believed that children in China may feel an increase in pressure due to being an only child.

According to Huang Zheng, a young citizen born in 1980, parents put all their effort and money into just one child, resulting in a generation which feels overwhelming pressure.

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Many Chinese citizens note that growing up as an only child is really stressful as they have to meet the expectations of both their parents and their grandparents.

According to Zhang Bowen, who was born in 1985, he is the only person who takes care of his wife, his kid, and his parents, resulting in an increased amount of stress and pressure.

Additionally, some believe that having a sibling while growing up would alleviate childhood loneliness and help to ease the pressure of taking care of elderly parents alone.  

Younger generations, on the other hand, don't seem to see the need for younger siblings.

A young boy born in 2008 said that he did not want to have older or younger siblings because they might 'mess up all the things in the house.'

A girl who was born in 2009 noted that she did not want to have a brother or a sister because her mom might focus her attention on him or her.

The one-child policy has stopped more than 400 million births ever since it was implemented in 1980, something which Chinese officials see as positive as scarce food resources were saved and families were pulled out of poverty.

However, in order to assuage the woes of a rapidly aging population as well as to replenish China's workforce, the Chinese government is now looking to implement a two-child policy instead.

Urban couples will be permitted to have a second child if both parents do not have siblings while rural couples are allowed to have a second offspring if the first-born was a female. 

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