China's Lost Girls

This afternoon I watched a National Geographic documentary entitled "China's Lost Girls". It follows families from the United States as they go to China to adopt baby girls from the orphanages. As many of you know, China is very strict about their population control. Families are permitted one child per family-if they choose to keep a second child, it can cost them a fine of thousands of dollars.

Due to traditional cultural beliefs that men are more valuable than females, many parents will not "waste" their one child option on a girl. This results in abortions and abandonment of the baby girls. The orphanages are bursting at the seems with little girls needing homes.

They follow a handful of American parents going to pick up their daughters. These parents have never met these babies and many of them have been waiting for a year to see them. The adoption day comes and all the families are waiting in a common area for their daughters to be brought out. The jubilation can almost be felt through the television screen. It's like everyone is experiencing labor at one time.

One of the mothers goes to the park where her daughter had been found ten years earlier. With the help of an interpreter, she hangs a sign in the park that reads: "this little girl (picture is included) was found in this park on the 7th of November 1999. She is happy and healthy and living in the United States". As the sign is being hung, immediately a crowd gathers around them. People are asking questions about her adoption and about the little girl. One man gets emotional and states that he feels great shame about his country that they would not take care of this little girl.

In an effort to discourage parents from aborting babies based on their gender, it is now illegal for doctors to tell parents the gender of their baby. They have female doctors that are hired to go door to door to educate people on the value of women in Chinese society.

An unforeseen consequence of limiting females in the society is that now men greatly out number the females. Many women are kidnapped and sold to men of marrying age. The film interviews a woman rescued from her kidnapped marriage-she talks about being raped daily to produce an heir. And the vicious cycle would start over: her pressure to bear a male.

Another penalty that completely shocked me is the childhood obesity epidemic. The vast majority of children in China are only children and spoiled to an unhealthy extent-literally. The film goes to one of China's fat clinics where children are participating in mandatory acupuncture and aerobics classes.



It's not surprising that these parents would want to provide well for their child. So many of China's generations grew up in poverty and starvation, the pendulum clearly has swung too far.

One of the best books I've ever read is Wild Swans. This non-fiction piece tells the story of three generations of women growing up in China as their country leaves its traditional roots behind for Communism. It is the perfect complimentary book to this documentary.