After becoming a mother, a filmmaker uncovers the untold history of China's one-child policy and the generations of parents and children forever shaped by this social experiment.After becoming a mother, a filmmaker uncovers the untold history of China's one-child policy and the generations of parents and children forever shaped by this social experiment.After becoming a mother, a filmmaker uncovers the untold history of China's one-child policy and the generations of parents and children forever shaped by this social experiment.
- Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy
- 10 wins & 50 nominations total
- Self
- (as Long Lan Stuy)
Featured reviews
Excellent film making, use of imagery, narration and examination of a number of different perspectives. Very sensitively approaching the subject, she was able to gently yet persuasively coax some truly shocking admissions of guilt from some of her interviewees. Be prepared for some awful images, but thankfully these scenes are not dwelt on for long as macabre voyeurism was not the intent, but to solidly make the point of what happened to many babies. The story told indicates that the one-child policy was implemented in a harsh, cruel, uncompromising and unforgiving way, although it seems the government eventually recognised the need to protect and find new homes via international adoption programmes for babies that were abandoned by their parents trying to avoid the harsh penalties that they would face.
The only criticism is that there is not much in the way of analysis of the reasons that led up to the point of the introduction of the policy in China. This was hinted at by interviews with her mother, but not much else. For an example of a country that should have, but hasn't introduced population control measures, take a look at India. There, they have well over 100 million people enduring appalling, squalid, miserable poverty and hundreds of millions more struggling daily to eke out a meagre existence. Religious dogma and lack of understanding about environmental impact regarding unrestrained human reproduction are at least partly to blame for the coming crisis of over-population in most parts of the world. If the human race is to avoid large scale wars over food, water and climate change induced migration in the next 30 years, then global population controls need to be carefully introduced and incentivised, but not the way the PRC did it. Seen at NZIFF Wellington by a parent of one child.
Hearing about China's 1979 one-child policy, lasting 35 years, is one thing. Listening to Asians who lived through it is another. The logic of administrators, some of whom who appear in Nanfu Wang's informative and touching documentary, One Child Nation, almost make sense.
Then you realize who is abandoned and who abducted, mostly girls, and you grimace for them and the families who were torn apart by the rule. Assuredly the females had to go first when authorities discovered families with more than one child because the Asian tradition had always favored males.
Wang having been given a man's name (Nanfu translates into "man" and pillar") shows a deft hand at directing without preaching. She does what I find lacking in too many docs-the other side. Those supporting a one-child policy appear frequently praising it as the salvation of a billion people who would have starved or resorted to cannibalism without the population restraint.
The devastating effects cannot be hidden: babies left in baskets, twins separated forever, human trafficking on a grand scale are just a few of the disorders. Propaganda is always there to reinforce the state's message. Wang presents it all, both good and bad.
But like our dark slavery past or Nazi cleansing, heinous plans to control population never seem to survive. The trail, however, is bloody and harrowing.
Wang has expertly balanced between a depressing subject and an important history lesson: "Don't fool with Mother Nature."
Did you know
- Quotes
Nanfu Wang: But I want that decision to be my own. I'm struck by the irony that I left a country where the government forced women to abort and I moved to another country where the governments restrict abortions. On the surface they seem like opposites, but both are about taking away women's control of their own bodies.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Subject (2022)
- How long is One Child Nation?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Народжений у Китаї
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $270,128
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $20,523
- Aug 11, 2019
- Gross worldwide
- $271,841
- Runtime1 hour 23 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
- 16 : 9
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