Show Notes
This week, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment Mei Fong talks about her investigation into China’s more than three-decade commitment to a one-child policy. She goes well beyond the familiar tropes of gender imbalance and aging population to explore the challenge of an emerging anti-feminist culture, the pain of parents who lost their only child in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and the secret two-child zones the government operated alongside its nationwide one-child policy. Her undercover adventure at a singles event provides some lighthearted moments. Overall, however, Fong finds little to celebrate and much cause for concern as the country now grapples with the political, economic, and social consequences of its repressive policy.