Many studies have interpreted the positive and negative consequences of China's One-Child Policy on Chinese women, but few have relied upon contribution from Chinese women and only children themselves. However, by valuing personal, lived experience, researchers may discourage the propagation of Western media stereotypes of what it means to be a young Chinese woman in urban China. The use of an intersectionality framework showcases how Chinese women's lived experiences must be framed more widely than a single aspect of their identity and that gender, educational experiences, family dynamic, and single child status (among other identity markers) form a more complex and holistic identity than any marker considered individually. This thesis argues that the intersectionality of lived experience makes it necessary to consider each individual's story as valuable and that commonalities and differences are both crucial to understanding how individual's lives intersect in the context of this complex birth policy

Contemporary China is facing the threat of rapidly aging population. Increasing portion of the economically inactive part of the population is already putting a significant strain on the Chinese pension system. Health care and social security system are still underdeveloped and also unprepared for this trend. As an attempt to reduce this issue by revitalizing the low birth rate, Chinese one-child policy underwent a significant relaxation in 2007. The expected acceleration of the birth rate however did not occur. Using the panel data from 31 regions of China between the period 2001 and 2013, I have analyzed this issue. My thesis provides the evidence, that one-child policy is not the exclusive culprit behind the continued trend of below-replacement fertility levels. Socioeconomic environment in China underwent a rapid transformation during the past 37 years. One of the socioeconomic factors newly affecting the Chinese birth rate level is the wealth. This is manifested by the inverse relationship between the wealth and fertility and it is known as the demographic-economic paradox. This thesis proves the presence of this phenomenon across the regions of China. It also demonstrates that it could have at least partly counterweighted the effect, which one-child policy easing had on birth rate in 2007. Since the one-child policy has lost significant part of its normative power to other factors affecting the birth rate, I am arguing it is the sign, that one-child policy is slowly becoming redundant on its own.

Population policy in China Abstract This thesis concerns the topic of population policy in China, focusing on the one-child policy. It describes the development of these policies and then deals with the research questions themselves. First of all the thesis describes the process of the fertility decrease in China in connection with the population policy since the 50s of the 20th century. This part of the thesis results in the findings that the largest fertility decrease occurred in the 70s of the 20th century as a consequence of the population policy measures. It was even before the implementation of the one-child policy in 1979, even though this also had a significant impact on the fertility. The one-child policy, amongst low fertility, has also brought some negative effects including accelerated demographic aging, increased sex ratio at birth, the phenomenon of "little emperors", more difficult situation for parents who lost their only child, etc. The thesis also compares the population policy of China and other Asian countries with similar trends in fertility. This part of the thesis results in the finding that similar fertility limitation can be handled by a milder way than it was in the case of China. Keywords: China, population policy, fertility, one-child policy

Thesis advisor: Christina Klein / The cultural face of modern China is constantly changing, whether through economic reforms, political campaigns, or social values. The ultimate inheritors and current carriers of this society in flux is the current post socialist, post 1989 youth generation. This paper examines the cultural changes that are occurring in China through six documentary films made in the 21st century that focus on youth and young adults as the representatives of the issues that the directors explore. In two films, the issue of the Single Child Policy will be examined in terms of the social repercussions the policy has created for modern youth, including gender, ethnic, and class inequalities. In the next two films, the economic conditions that have produced millions of migrant examined as it relates to the changing family values in much of China. The last two films explore the consumer culture of today’s modern youth, and how this culture impacts the expressive output of this generation. I conclude through these films that although the youth of today have been irrevocably shaped by these, and other, cultural changes that have occurred during their lifetime, they are still most fundamentally influenced by the traditional values of Chinese culture including relationships, family, and collective expression. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: International Studies Honors Program. / Discipline: International Studies.

Thesis advisor: Janet E. Helms / As the first generation born after China introduced its "one-child policy," Chinese female students in the United States belong to a special population that is under the dual pressures of their parents' expectations to succeed and the conflicting traditional Chinese stereotypes of women as obedient to men, dependent, and home orientated. Previous research on Chinese female students' acculturative experiences indicates that these women face unique challenges in redefining their gender roles. However, no studies have explored whether womanist and acculturative processes are related to this psychological transition. The current study explored womanist identity and acculturation attitudes as processes influencing Chinese women's negotiations of their gender roles and redefinitions of themselves as women while living in the United States. Chinese female international students (N=192), enrolled in colleges or universities in the US, completed a demographic questionnaire; the Womanist Identity Attitude Scale (Helms, 1990), which assessed their manner of coping with traditional role expectations; and, the Acculturation Scale for Asian International Students (Gu, 2008), which measured acculturation attitudes. Their gender-role traits and stereotypical attitudes toward American women were examined by the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) (Bem, 1974) and Attitudes toward Women Scale (AWS) (Spence, Helmrich, & Stapp, 1978). Canonical correlation analyses were used to investigate relationships among (a) womanist identity and acculturation attitudes, (b) womanist identity and gender-roles, and (c) acculturation attitudes and gender roles. Two identity-acculturation patterns, three identity-gender role patterns, and two acculturation-gender role patterns were identified. When the Chinese women were self-defining their gender-role identity, they were participating in U.S. culture and integrating traditional and non-traditional gender-role traits and attitudes. Traditional womanist attitudes were associated with increased levels of rejecting the U.S. culture, traditional gender roles, and perceived dissimilarities between themselves and U.S. women. The current study is the first to investigate gender-role and acculturation developmental issues of "One-Child" women from a psychological perspective. Obtained results suggest that their adaptive processes are more complex than anticipated. Methodological limitations of the study are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

Thirty years after its initial implementation, China’s one child per family policy has been undeniably successful statistically speaking. Over 400 million births can be estimated to have been prevented, and the birth rate per family has lowered from 2.47 in 1979 at its implementation, to 1.6 most recently in 2010. These numbers cannot be ignored. However, attributing this success to the policy restrictions alone would be viewing it outside of the context of a thirty year evolution of substantial social, political, cultural, and economic changes which have completely changed the face of China. This paper examines the far reaching effects of the one child policy as it is informed by Foucauldian post structuralist theory which defines power as productive, and re conceptualizes the policy as that which is a crucial manifestation of rising biopolitically strategic forms of governmentality which enhance nations through the subjugation, enhancement and creation of the bodies of their subjects. Critical to China’s case is rising ‘non-resistant’ behaviors and attitudes which not only comply with, but actively agree with the one child policy limitations once considered abhorrent. This paper complicates the logic behind the rise of these ‘non-resistant’ attitudes, by suggesting that they are evidence to the fact that this ‘modern’ Chinese subject is the productive outcome of several discourses which proliferated in the last thirty years during the juxtaposed implementation of both economic reforms and family planning limitations. This paper chronicles two of the productive discourses involved in the making of this newly emergent ‘modern’ Chinese subject: the culturally productive discourse involved in the care and feeding of ‘little emperors‘ and the socially exclusive discourse with paints the rural population as internal ‘rural others’.

Sociological and demographic analyses of minority fertility in the United States have suggested that the processes of socioeconomic, cultural, marital, and structural assimilation will lead to convergence in fertility. So far, little research has used the assimilation approach to study the fertility of the minority populations of China, and also, no research has taken both individual-level and group-level characteristics as predictors. Using micro-data from the One Percent 1990 Census of China, this dissertation performs multilevel analyses, hierarchical generalized linear modeling, to examine the effects of assimilation and the one-child policy at both the individual level and the group level on minority women's fertility. Several patterns are found in the multilevel analyses. First, the contextual characteristics of minority groups have strong correlations with fertility across thirty major minority groups in China. It suggests that community power and subculture have strong influences on women's decisions regarding their number of children. Second, the effect of the one-child policy is positive and highly significant on minority women's fertility. However, the strong policy effect does not cover the effect of assimilation. After controlling for policy, the impact of all the assimilation predictors, at both the individual and group level, still remains statistically significant. At the individual level, minority women's educational level, occupational status, status of intermarriage, and migration status have significant and positive impacts on their fertility. At the group level, the levels of minority groups' residential segregation, educational segregation, illiteracy, intermarriage rate, and their Moslem group culture have significant and negative impacts on individual women's fertility. Third, several cross-level interactions in the rural models are not consistent with the complete models, which suggests that some indirect effects of assimilation on minority fertility may come from the urban minorities. Finally, in addition to the direct impacts of socioeconomic, marital, and cultural assimilation on minority fertility, several cross-level interactions are significant and indirectly affect women's fertility. Findings reported in this dissertation indicate a successful integration of individual and contextual variables in analyses of minority fertility. The results contribute to the understanding of the assimilation impacts on minority fertility in China.

The main design problem that I investigated is: How might senior co-housing in China’s suburban environment interact with culture, comfort and energy as a response to China’s aging issues? The topic will be explored into the following two parts: (1) The feasibility study of senior co-housing as a new housing type responding to China’s aging issues. (2) The prototype design of a senior co-housing community in China’s suburban environment--- a study on its interaction with culture, comfort and energy. China is currently experiencing a rapid demographic shift. In mid-January 2011, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that China now has roughly 185 million people over the age of 60, and this number will increase to 248 million by 2020 (Benjamin Shobert 2012). According to the data from the United Nations World Population Prospects at May 31, 2011, by the year 2030, more than 24.4% of China’s population will be over the age of 60, compared to the ratio of 25.3 in the U.S. The increasing aging population will make China one of the oldest countries in the world. While the aging issue is global, the specific context makes it unique in China. The “one-child policy” (officially translated as “family planning policy”), which restricts urban couples to only one child, has been carried out since 1979(“Family Planning in China” 2013), and dramatically changed the family structure in China. In the beginning of last 90s, every 1 elderly in China was supported by 10 adult children. For now, assuming the fact that the “one-child” policy is not quite functioning in most rural areas, the ratio becomes 1 to 3. This means the traditional family size is shrinking, and the function of the family is weakening. Meanwhile, the massive migration among the youth generation in China has made this situation even worse--lots of elderly parents and grandparents stay geographically distant from their children, which means the traditional cross-generational housing model will no longer be an option. Since their single child is unable to care for them, the current age 50+ generation that has been affected by the ‘one-child policy’ would face a lack of resources and necessities. Based on the facts stated above, a discourse arises in recent years: What is the housing option that meets the needs of the current 50+ generation, considering China’s context-specific constraints? Starting with the interest of answering those questions, the whole study consists of two parts: Firstly, by studying China’s context-specific constraints, proposing an alternative housing type; secondly, conducting a prototype design of this particular housing type by further exploring the design problem. The first part has been done by the author through an independent study during the Fall 2013 semester, in which the author discussed the importance and feasibility of applying senior co-housing in China’s suburban environment as a solution to China’s aging issues. In the Master Study Design, the author will combine the knowledge/ findings from the independent study with design strategies. Chosen a senior co-housing community with 15 occupants in a selected suburban environment as the study object, the author hopes to find a design solution by proposing a scheme that interacts with culture, comfort and energy. / text

An exhibition thesis from Xiao Han, who presents large photographs as ‘stills’ from a fictitious movie set in late 20th century China, after the suppression of the Tiananmen Square Protest and the inauguration of the one- Child policy. The artist plays multiple roles in sites that are specifically gendered, to expose the exceptional impact the population control laws had on women. Traumatized social and psychic perspectives emerge from the political turmoil, registering as uncanny absences and repressed delays.

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