Shanghai two child policy
Length: 8 min 25 sec
Tags:
Broadcast Date: Wed, 28 Apr2010 22:30:00
Pool: World Journal
Stand: Thu, 6 Mai2010 15:18:15
World Journal Shanghai-child policy OT-text translations AKM
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0:05
In a small nursery in a neighborhood of Shanghai,children play with their grandparents. This scene is typical of the demographics here: grandparents no longer have several children to look after. These children are the centre of their families. (0:23)


00:29
OT Luo Xiangguang. Grandfather: (Speaker: Waibel)
He has his Grandpa and Grandma, Mum and Dad. Not so many people cared about me.

0:37
People have become used to the one child policy in China. Most young parents grew up as only children themselves. But nothing is written in stone. China is aging rapidly. Soon it may be overtaken by India in the population stakes. Already in Shanghai, one in five people are over 60. The country is threatened with labour shortages and the massive problem of care for the elderly.

1.09- 1.41
OT Wang Ling, spokeswoman for Population - Family Planning: (Narrator: Daniela Kong)
Here in Shanghai the aging of the population is a very striking phenomenon and a big problem. The demographic structure of the city is uneven.There are big differences between the center and the edges. This imbalance between young and old has a major impact on economic development. Demographic structure and population distribution are major problems for us.

1:42
Now the Family Planning Office will allow certain people to have a second child.

1:50
From now on, those who are only children and have married another only child may now have two children. In Shanghai, the rules will be relaxed even further: a couple may have a second child even if only one partner is an only child. What’s more, the minimum interval of four years between the birth of the first and the second child will be lifted.

But do Shanghai residents really want a second child?

2:20
Two-year old Yunyu will probably not get a sibling. Her parents both work. And they think it takes quite enough money and organisation to care for one child.

2:33
Mother Lu Xiaoyan arrives home after seven today, the same as every day. She is exhausted, but in time for dinner.

2:51
To take care of the household and their child, they employ a so-called Ayi, a nanny and housekeeper.

3:00 to 3:17
OT Lu Xiaoyan, mother: (Officer: Noemi Fischer)
To employ an Ayi is common in China. We both leave between 7 and 8 to go to work and don’t come back again until the evening. Because her grandparents are quite old, we need an Ayi.

3:18
After the relaxation of the one-child law the couple could have a second child. But they don’t want to. The one-child model is what the parents of today grew up with.

Moreover, they feel that an additional mouth to feed would be much too expensive:

3:40 to 4:02
OT Fang Vi, father: (Speaker: Markus Waibel)
Raising one child is already expensive enough. We can provide a good education and a comfortable life for one child at the moment. Plus, we both work. If one of us could stay at home, maybe we could have a larger family.

4:03
After dinner, Ayi Wang’s work is done. If her own family were here, she would devote herself to them instead.

4:14
Like so many other migrant workers, Wang has left behind her own children in the countryside. The focal point for Ayi in Shanghai is the small agency through which they find work, and where they meet other nannies.

4:32 to 4:42
OT Wang Rong. Migrant worker in Shanghai: (Sprechein: Daniela
Kong)
I only see my children twice a year, when they come to visit me in Shanghai for New Year and summer vacation. I have no time to go home.


04:44
Hundreds of women come through this agency every month with similar stories. In China, even if you move to the city, you are still labelled a country person according to the Hukou household registration system. Much is bound up in this system, such as healthcare. It also dictates where a child may attend school. To change the Hukou is very difficult. Therefore, these women are forced to leave their children behind in their villages.


5:16 to 5:37
OT Fu Rong, Ayi-agent: (Narrator: Noemi Fischer)
Many children fear loss. I have heard of older children writing text messages to their parents saying, "Mum, Dad,, I don’t want your money, I just need you to care for me." Yet these children are the reason that the parents leave the country; to offer them a better future.

5:38
Shanghai doesn’t want these children. While the established population in Shanghai is being encouraged to have more children, the newcomers to the city continue to face hardship .

5:53
This area of Shanghai is populated almost entirely by immigrants. As part of the project to develop this district, a new school has been built for the immigrants’ children. At least this basic facility makes their lives a little easier.

6:13
But if these children want to go to university they have to go back to the provinces, so it makes little sense for them to start middle school in Shanghai. Almost half a million children are affected by this legislation, a quarter of all schoolchildren in the city.

6:33
One of these children is nine-year old Zhang Chunrui. His father has come to pick him up, as he does every day.

6:43
Zhang's family runs a small market stall in Shanghai. They sell meat and snacks to earn a living.

06:56
But what we see here is not the whole family. Zhang also has two sisters. The eldest lives in a student dormitory in their home province. The second with grandparents. Only their son’s education is important to the parents. He’s currently preparing for his primary school exams. (7.14)

7:16 to 7:33
OT Guo Wannian, migrant workers: (speaker: Daniela Kong)
If he’s asked to form a causal clause at school he always writes: "If I study at university, I will make my parents very happy“. For him it’s just a clause, but for me it’s important.

7:34
It’s clear their son’s education is more important, but Mrs Guo has another reason why they decided to leave their two girls behind in the province: (7:43)

7:45 to 7:53
OT Guo Wannian, migrant workers: (speaker: Daniela Kong)
The girls are well behaved. He is cheeky so I need to keep an eye on him.

7:55
Whether or not immigrant children like Zhang should automatically get official city residency has been a cause of heated debate in the Chinese press.

Would this not be an alternative way of alleviating the problem of Shanghai’s ageing population, besides a new two-child policy? The Family Planning Bureau is evasive:

8:20 to 8:32
OT Wang Ling, Family Planning Bureau Shanghai: (speaker: Daniela
Kong)
Of course, our city is too old. But it’s not just the Family Planning Bureau’s responsibility. There are several factors.

For now there is little freedom of movement for children from Shanghai.
Whether they are born into a one-child family or not, they grow up in a two-class society. (8:48)


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Length: 8.50
AKM:
ARN: CDO3/3786/6 (ORF's office): 0.21; 0.270.18