About this Website
The Content
Links are provided in the Resources sections to all official sources used in this website. Please contact the author with question or for reprint permission at sjberger@ufl.edu.
The Photos
All photos were taken by the author in China during July 2007. For reprint permission, email sjberger@ufl.edu.
The Author
The author is a graduate student at the University of Florida studying mass communications, women’s studies, and public health.
Statement from the author:
"I spent July of 2007 in China, traveling up the eastern coast and visiting six major cities, including Nanning, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing. The trip was a phenomenal learning experience, and I was continuously impressed by the willingness of complete strangers to offer help whenever I needed it, despite a challenging language barrier.
“Although I had long known about China’s One-Child Policy and some of its implications, it was startling to come face to face with the reality: I saw many, many babies during my trip, and far more than half of them were boys. The parents I encountered were doting, regardless of the sex of their baby. Still, it was shocking to witness the skewed sex ratio first-hand — and to be forced to contemplate its long-term consequences in a nation that is growing and changing at an incredible rate each day.
“This website seeks to provide an objective overview of China’s One-Child Policy. Passions run high on all sides of the issue, but this will not bring the international community to a deeper understanding of this complex policy and its even more complicated long-term implications.
“Due to problems caused by the growing imbalance of its sex ration, China will soon be forced to reevaluate the One-Child Policy and decide what, if any, changes to make. In the meantime, I believe it is important for the international community to educate itself on the issue and be prepared to handle — even lobby for — whatever policy changes occur in the future.” — S. Henneberger