The Leavers, a story written by Lisa Ko, follows the life of Deming Guo through several flash forwards and flashbacks. The character that I’d like to focus on primarily; however, is his mother, Polly. Polly grew up on the bottom rungs of society in China, living in the rural town of Minjiang. Around the time when she moves from her small rural town to a much bigger city in hopes of a new life, she births her first child.
For the first part of Polly’s background she lives a relatively normal and insignificant life, but after becoming pregnant for a second time (this time with Deming) she encounters her first major problem. For many years in China, a widespread law was enacted to limit each family to only one child. This presented a major issue to Polly, who found out that she had been pregnant for too long to get an abortion.
This is a problem that has been encountered by millions of women within China who are left with no choices for how to handle their baby. The One-Child policy was introduced in 1979 within China in order to severely limit the growth of population within their borders. While there were a few exceptions to this policy, the fact of the matter is that many women and families were left with no choices except to either accept the enormous fines distributed by the government or move to another country like how Polly did.
Polly is a case study of just one example of a systemic problem that affected tens of millions of families across China for decades. Thankfully, this ban was lifted in 2015 in order “to improve the balanced development of population,” in reference to the gross imbalance in ratio of males to females within China’s borders. Along with the massive imbalance in gender within China during this period, there are also many obvious injustices shown by a severe lack of choice within a family along with extreme limitations on women’s reproductive rights that should not be tolerated. While this ban has now been lifted, we must work to make sure that such an injustice is not allowed to be enacted on such a large scale ever again.
Works Cited
Akbar, Arifa. “The Leavers by Lisa Ko Review – Quietly Sensational Story of Migrants’ Plight.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 22 Apr. 2018, www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/22/leavers-lisa-ko-review-migrants-debut-chinese-american.
“The One-Child Policy Legacy on Women and Relationships in China.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/the-one-child-policy-legacy-on-women-and-relationships-in-china/.
Cameron, your context presentation was informal, and I appreciate the given background on population control in China during the “The Leavers” time period. I believe the knowledge about this regulation placed on the women in China really helps the reader understand the immense conflict Polly faces in her life and better comprehend the reasoning behind the choices she made throughout the novel.
Hi Cameron. Thanks for this context presentation. I think this information about the choices many families and women faced in China during this time is really helpful in contextualizing Polly’s choices. It’s also interesting to think about how this affected the gender makeup of China, so I think that was a great point to bring up.
Hey Cameron! I found your context presentation very interesting. China’s one child policy is something that I knew about but have never put much thought into. I did not understand the extent of the amount of people who were impacted by the law. Your presentation was very informative and helped me understand what the book is about. It is important that we understand how the law worked and how people were affected by it before we begin reading. Great post!
I enjoyed reading this post and I thought that it added important context to our story. I already knew of the one-child policy, but I am excited to hear about it from a first-hand perspective. I think this one-child policy was rather inhumane and treated people as solely numbers instead of living beings.
Hi Cameron! Awesome post, I found it really insightful to learn more about the One Child law and how that affected women all over China. Hearing about this law and the reproductive rights of woman was very eye opening and hit close to home due to the fact we still struggle with these things in America. I’m glad to see the One Child law has been lifted which I figured it was but wasn’t exactly sure until now. Both China and America have a long way to go for women rights and everything included with that.
Great job Cameron, I was aware of the law in china but not about the significance or the timeline. I think your post really makes us think of everything that families had to face in order to really be able to survive in the different demographic environments. I wonder if the economy is leaning this direction again? which would be incredibly sad.
Good job on the presentation Cameron! I was not aware that there was a law in regard to how many children you could have in China. I could understand the reason for this law, since China is one of the most populated countries in the world, but I can’t imagine what happens if the government finds out if you have more than one child during this time. I think that this law goes against our human rights based off of family. I am glad that this law has been lifted though.
Hey Cameron! Thank you so much for your insightful context presentation. I am really glad you highlighted the law that China implemented to control its population. I think it’s also very important you illustrated that many of these children given up for adoption or surrendered were female, as most Chinese family desired males to carry on family names and history. It also really aids in painting a picture of Polly’s struggles and the limited amount of choices she had about her pregnancy and child. Well done!
Hi Cameron, your presentation is great! I love it so much. As a Chinese and also a person born under the one-child policy, I have a deep feeling about this matter. Consistent with what you describe in the article, the status of Chinese women is consistently questioned, especially in rural areas. Because the idea of women’s low status has spread since ancient times. So it will take a long time to completely eradicate this problem.
This is a strong post, this allowed me to see the impact within their society and how many people are affected by the one-child law. Especially, people who live in the lower ring would have a greater difficult time if they break the law because they would have to be in constant hiding in a poor living environment. This is information that is tough to know because it brings on a lot of death with young children and infants; going over 10 million women having to face this within China; and having a huge imbalance of systemic injustice.
Great Context Presentation post Cameron! I thought your post was very informative and well-written. You got your point across without any confusion. I definitely agree with your statement that even though the policy is lifted, we should still acknowledge that fact that it did use to exist and make sure that doesn’t happen again. The policy was way too strict for such a large population. It is not just an example of injustice to the families, but the women especially.
Great post Cameron! The one-child rule that existed in China was always something that struck me as almost unbelievable, and it lead to a lot of stories similar to Polly’s. It was extremely harsh and created a lot of strife for so many people. I appreciated your acknowledgment that the problems did not simply disappear with the removal of the rule, as many of the effects are still being seen in China.
Nice work, Cameron! You introduced a very detailed background to help us understand what is a one-child policy in China. Many women in China are facing that problem. In order to limit the population in China, the Chinese government used a one-child policy to reduce newborn babies. So many families need to make their decisions wisely when they are planning to have a baby. Even though right now the Chinese government removed that policy, fewer families want to have more children since they can not afford them.
Hi Cameron, you did a great job on this context presentation. Your post about the One-Child policy during that period of time perfectly shows some background information and explains why Polly came to United States when she was pregnant for the second time. As I’m also a Chinese who is the only child in my family, it’s happy to see the remove of the policy. Because it does help the women in China to gain their rights to give birth.
Hi Cameron, very informational post! This may sound uneducated, but I honestly had no clue the extremes that these laws went to and how recently they were in place. The fact that the laws were lifted just SIX years ago in 2015 is crazy. I think knowing more about this law can help people really understand the things that parents and children had to go through in China. It can give people a whole new perspective on what Polly had to go through in this story. It is also important to know, like you mentioned, that even though the law is lifted that things are still happening concerning this situation.
Hi. That is absolutely correct. One child policy was once enforced strictly. If you have another child, there’s a big chance that the local government will force you to get an abortion. Even when it was less strict, you still need to pay a large amount of fine to have a second child.