Only hope : coming of age under China's one-child policy /
Vanessa L. Fong.
- x, 242 pages ; 24 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-237) and index.
"The Next Few Months Will Determine Your Future": Eight Teenagers' Stories -- Great Expectations: Singletons as the Vanguard of Modernization -- Heavy is the Head of the "Little Emperor": Pressure, Discipline, and Competition in the Stratification System -- "Beat Me Now and I'll Beat You When You're Old": Love, Filial Duty, and Parental Investment in an Aging Population -- "Spoiled": First World Youth in the Third World -- Conclusion: Making a Road to the First World -- Biographical Details of People Quoted or Mentioned in this Book. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. App.
"Only Hope shows how the one-child policy has largely succeeded in its goals, but with unintended consequences. Only-children are expected to be the primary providers of support and care for their retired parents, grandparents, and parents-in-law, and only a very lucrative position will allow them to provide for so many dependents. Many only-children aspire to elite status even though few can attain it, and such aspirations lead to increased stress and competition, as well as intense parental involvement. To their parents, brought up in larger families with lower parental investment, only-children seem maladjusted and spoiled - a complaint, the author points out, heard in many societies in the developed world, where declining fertility rates are an integral part of the modern economy."--BOOK JACKET.
0804749612 9780804749619
2003019111
Teenagers--China--Longitudinal studies Only child--China--Longitudinal studies Parent and child--China--Longitudinal studies