Movie Poster

没办法 (There is nothing that can be done.)

# Review

I became interested in China’s one-child policy after hearing about the policy’s unlikely origin, when a Chinese nuclear scientist became inspired by a thought experiment over beers with his Dutch academic counterpart.

I found that there aren’t a great deal of popular media made on such an important policy, probably due to its highly controversial nature.

I’m a bit conflicted about this film; on one hand the film is easily accessible for the masses and shows a narrative largely ignored by the CCP, such as the human suffering of women who underwent forced abortions, on the other hand, the film propagates a one-sided Western liberal narrative that ignores much of the contextual nuance surrounding the core issue.

Starting with the positives, the film was well-made. I especially enjoyed the cinematography surrounding the CCP propaganda posters, which is something I’ve personally come across while in China. I also liked how the filmmaker is herself a Chinese mother and it made the film feel much more intimate. What I liked the most about this film is that it exposes many of the narratives that have been forgotten or covered up, such as the sex-selective and forced abortions of women as well as the ensuing human trafficking of children. I found the interviews with the individual victims (as well as the perpetrators) very telling.

Unfortunately, if one focuses too much on the individual, one can miss out on the collective. For one, the one-child policy was technically not law and it was administered in a drastically different manner depending on the jurisdiction; I felt the film implied that the experiences of the people being portrayed represents the overall Chinese experience (which is not true). I also felt the film could have also done a better job explaining the Chinese cultural context, especially the difference between the Western liberal individualist view and the Chinese socialist collective view; Chinese society emphasizes unity and harmony over individual advancement. Explaining how the one-child policy fits into the Chinese ethos and the Chinese state-society relationship could have made the film more nuanced and informative. I also felt that even by Western liberal standards, the one-child policy helped usher in, at the time, a generation of the most educated and cosmopolitan Chinese women. This is backdropped by a traditional patriarchal system where women had very little reproductive control and in some extreme cases, were still being treated like property. The film could have explored and contrasted both sides of the issue for a more comprehensive view even from a Western liberal feminist perspective.

The one-child policy brings up an interesting ethical question: if you believe that the social and economic systems cannot support more children, is it ethically correct to bring more of them into the world? I don’t have the answer but it does make for an interesting debate.

# Conclusion

A one-sided perspective on China's one-child policy.

# Overall rating: 6.8

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