One child for all. Family duty in post-80s China

Description

Most China scholars in the United States are very interested in countering the “Red Scare” ideology that served as the prevailing influence on American perceptions of China since 1949. From the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 through the 90s, the prevailing media story became one of human rights violations, which frequently served to exacerbate the problems inherent in American views of China as the “other” in a troubling discourse of binaries: America is rich, China is poor; America is democratic, China is Communist; America is open, China is closed. In the twenty-first century, as the story has become that of tremendously fast economic development, American perceptions of China have been turned on their heads. In this film, subjects’ testimonies dispel American misconceptions and complicate the discourse on modern Chinese society and the one child policy. As the first generation to grow up in an era of rapid economic and technological development, members of the post-80s generation are, according to Chinese media, “rebellious teenagers”, “spoiled little Emperors”, and “China's first generation of couch potatoes”. Concerned previous generations worry that China's youth will refuse to care for the ever-growing proportion of elderly. With the crisis of aging looming in the near future, China must ask whether the concept of family duty is dying out with the post-80s generation. By exploring this question through interviews with women of this generation living in Shanghai, One Child for All: Family Duty in Post-80s China presents students with an alternative discourse on China: a discourse that includes this highly-educated, future-driven, inspirational group of agents in a rapidly changing society.

Runtime

25 minutes

Subjects

Geography

Genre

Database

Alexander Street

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