{"id":208675,"date":"2018-08-23T21:11:18","date_gmt":"2018-08-24T04:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=208675"},"modified":"2018-08-23T23:55:52","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T06:55:52","slug":"translation-the-birth-story-of-an-illegal-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2018\/08\/translation-the-birth-story-of-an-illegal-child\/","title":{"rendered":"Translation: The Birth Story of an Illegal Child"},"content":{"rendered":"
In 2015, the Chinese government officially reformed its infamous one-child policy to a “two-child policy,” relaxing the family planning rule that critics had long cautioned was contributing to demographic distress<\/a>. Following the move, experts warned that it would not be enough to answer the challenges facing Chinese society<\/a> after four decades of a one-child policy. Beyond that, other unexpected challenges have arisen<\/a> from the two-child policy, and the demographic trend-correcting baby-boom that the change was intended to catalyze\u00a0has so far not materialized<\/a>.<\/p>\n As some Chinese regions attempt to offer other incentives to stimulate a faltering birthrate<\/a>\u00a0and official moves are read by some as hints that further relaxation of the policy is imminent<\/a>, an essay on WeChat tells the birth story of a so-called “black child”<\/strong><\/a> (h\u0113i h\u00e1izi<\/em> \u9ed1\u5b69\u5b50)\u2014born illegally at the height of China’s family planning restrictions. CDT has translated the full essay, written by @HuoLaoye <\/em>(\u970d\u8001\u7237):<\/p>\n My mother gave me three lives.<\/p>\n In my family I was the third eldest, born in the 1980s. Children like me are known as \u201cblack children,\u201d not because our skin is black, of course, but because we exceeded the birth-control policy and have no <\/span>hukou<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n I was born at a time when China\u2019s family planning policy was at its strictest. My parents didn\u2019t originally plan on having me. My father recommended I be aborted, but my mother cried for a long time\u2014the child is soon coming to us and for him to never get the chance to see us is such a pity. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So the two of them decided that I\u2019d be born.<\/span><\/p>\n My mother\u2019s stature was slender, she worked just like everyone else. At first others didn\u2019t know about me, but later I was discovered and reported. At that time, family planning held veto power over all else. If a single county was caught breaking the policy, then all other good work it had done would be for naught. The county CCP secretary had to personally lay down \u00a0military order.<\/span><\/p>\n At about the six-month mark, a group of people rushed into our home, some wearing white gowns and others cadres with stately four-pocketed uniforms, wanting to take my mother to a county health institution. At the time my mother was kneading dough, and her hands were covered with flour. Seeing so many people, she knew she couldn\u2019t run. She just said: \u201cCan I bring a quilt?\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One cadre shot her a glance and said: \u201cWhat need is there for a quilt? We\u2019ll get you to the hospital and under the knife, then you\u2019ll come right back home.\u201d Mother says she still remembers that cadre\u2019s face. <\/span><\/p>\n Mother could only easily grab my older sister\u2019s small cotton-padded jacket.<\/span><\/p>\n When mother was taken to the health institution, there were already many pregnant women there. She guesses there were close to a hundred.<\/span><\/p>\n Only later did she know, the county wanted to \u201ckill the chickens to warn the monkeys.\u201d They launched a \u201chundred-day battle\u201d to suppress those who had exceeded the birth control policy. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That was in the autumn, and mother was wearing an unlined garment. The evenings were already very cold, and she had only that small cotton-padded jacket to defend against the cold. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The next afternoon she saw two big trucks arrive at the health institution, and realized that they could be taking people to the city hospital to induce labor. She pretended to wet the small jacket, then told the hospital staff her man was elsewhere, and asked if a fellow villager could take a letter back asking my father to send her a quilt. That cadre said, \u201cSend what quilt? Soon you won\u2019t be able to use it.\u201d My mother immediately understood what he meant.<\/span><\/p>\n That evening, she pretended to go check if the jacket was dry, and stealthily snuck out the back door hoping to escape, not knowing that there was an old man watching the door.<\/span><\/p>\n She slowly tried to make friends with him, asking him where he was from, who was in his family. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She dilly-dallied there and didn\u2019t go.<\/span><\/p>\n The old man directly said: \u201cDon\u2019t waste your time and energy. I am here [to guard the door], I can\u2019t let you go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n My mother said: \u201dI don\u2019t want to go, I just want to chat with you. Do you have any children?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The old man said: \u201cThere are two sons in my family, neither of them do what they are told.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n My mother said: \u201cYour accent sounds like you\u2019re from near to my village. I want to give birth to this one, I reckon it is also a son. Another one who won\u2019t do what he is told.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That old man suddenly said, \u201cIf you want to go, then go. But don\u2019t go through the back door, there\u2019s a wall. If you can climb then go ahead and climb. If you make it over, count it as your son\u2019s good luck.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I don\u2019t know how she made it over, but to summarize, my mother carried her 6-month pregnancy up a 2-meter wall, jumped down the other side, and that night rushed a dozen miles to arrive at the home of my father\u2019s uncle.<\/span><\/p>\n The pregnant women who were in the health institution were taken the next day to the hospital for induced labor. Of nearly a hundred children, not one of them was born alive.<\/span><\/p>\n My mother stayed for three months in another person\u2019s home fearing that her relative was dissatisfied with her, dragging herself around to cook their food and wash their clothes. But her months were stacking up and the relative also didn\u2019t dare keep me\u2014when he came or went there would always be neighbors pointing fingers. Some said \u00a0those who permitted a birth-exceeding pregnant lady to stay in their house would bring ruin down upon their household.<\/span><\/p>\n Mother also didn\u2019t dare to stay anymore. She sent word for my father to come and get her. But by afternoon, he still wasn\u2019t there yet when she started to feel unwell\u2014she thought she\u2019d be giving birth soon. She insisted on leaving. My father\u2019s uncle\u2019s family was already afraid of getting into trouble, so they quickly let my mother go.<\/span><\/p>\n She couldn\u2019t head into the city to find my father, she could only go to her hometown. But she didn\u2019t dare to do so in daylight or on the main road for fear of being arrested. She camouflaged herself for the dozen mile journey. Who knew it would start raining at the halfway point, and it was almost four in the morning when she arrived home.<\/span><\/p>\n Just as she arrived, the wife of a neighbor helped her to give birth, and I was born without a hitch, seven <\/span>jin<\/span><\/em> and four <\/span>liang <\/span><\/em>[about 8.16 lb]<\/span>. Mother said, \u201cThis child really is heavy, he knew it wouldn\u2019t be easy for him to be born, so he seized his chance and made his way into the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n My mother wasn\u2019t very cultured, but on that day there was \u00a0no one else around. She thought a while and said: \u201cThis child was born at 4:00, at a time of clearing weather, his name should have the characters for \u2018dawn,\u2019 and \u2018clear sky,\u2019 and so the moment the sky alit, all was well. \u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps it was as she wished, since I was little I\u2019ve met no illness or calamity. Even though I was a black child, I grew up in good health. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But since then, she has had some ailments\u2014varicose veins, which are said to be from walking too far on foot.<\/span><\/p>\n Some people think that family planning is right, while others think it is wrong. I don\u2019t know, but I do know one thing: my mother rebelled against family planning policies to give birth to me. This is an epic of our family, and one day I\u2019ll tell my son and grandson about it. [Chinese<\/strong><\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Translation by Josh Rudolph and Lisbeth<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 2015, the Chinese government officially reformed its infamous one-child policy to a “two-child policy,” relaxing the family planning rule that critics had long cautioned was contributing to demographic distress. Following the move, experts warned that it would not be enough to answer the challenges facing Chinese society after four decades of a one-child policy. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":985,"featured_media":208679,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[99,14744,14745,14746,5,1051,4202],"tags":[15393,357,4916],"class_list":["post-208675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cdt-highlights","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-society","category-top-article","category-translation","tag-netizen-voices","tag-one-child-policy","tag-rural-women","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n