⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Verified Purchase – Do the world a favor, read this book and give it to your book club. When I first heard of China’s one-child policy, I was a teen who’d enjoyed being an only child. From that myopic view, the Chinese seemed to have stuck upon an elegantly simple solution for managing population woes. A whole country of beloved and nurtured children, what could be better?
Studying economics and demographics with Chinese friends at university let me see cracks in the one-child policy, but it was a micro view. Mei Fong’s One Child pries open surface fissures in China’s population policy with a wrecking bar. She reveals deep rifts in the cultural and societal heart of China, wrought by the reckless and overly simplistic policy. No aspect of Chinese life is untouched at the community, family, and intimately personal level. I am inspired by this book to do greater research in this area, particularly as it relates to gender bias around the world.
Your admiration will make your family and friends want to borrow this book, so you might as well buy one for them as a gift.
One Child by Mei Fong with JSC. – I had the great fortune of buying the book and chatting with Mei Fong in person at Berkeley Arts & Letters. It was a fascinating evening, and her advice on my own writing gives me courage to write the hard truth daily.