A wise man once said that nation is an imagined community. Its boundaries are imagined through media, symbols and collective memories of wars. One may wonder how these children imagine their nation. When will they realize the pictures of cute cartoons on their backpacks are from a country who once invaded their nation? When they realize it, will they despise these cartoons as part of a collective national memory or embrace them as part of their childhood memory? If every nation is imagined through the minds of innocent children, nationalism may not be a reason for conflict.
Amy Traver | Stony Brook University says:
In 1970, Premier Zhou Enlai initiated the first involuntary population control campaign in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This campaign, which limited each Chinese couple to two children, was replaced in 1978 by more stringent family planning legislation. Commonly referred to as the one-child policy, this new legislation restricted most Chinese couples to one child.
In the late 1970’s, Chinese officials and demographers alike were careful about the language that they used to describe the PRC’s new population control efforts. With little reference to the fact that China comprised 20% of the world’s population on 7% of the world’s arable land, they stressed how fertility limits would hasten the modernization of China’s national agriculture, industry, science and technology, and national defense.
As Vanessa L. Fong describes in Only Hope: Coming of Age under China’s One-Child Policy (2004), this legislation has radically transformed the life of the average Chinese child. Like those captured in this photograph, these children have quickly become the center of the modern Chinese family unit and the PRC’s burgeoning economy. Given an increase in the familiar and national resources now available to them, an extraordinary number of Chinese children can compete in a capitalist world system that they – and their nation – are helping to transform.
Prof. Dr. Li Hanlin | Vice Director, Institute of Sociology, The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing China says:
The Chinese way is for children to follow behind each other, rather than to hold hands in pairs as is done in the United States.
You must be a Rachel Tanur Memorial Prize applicant to submit an essay response.
3 Essays
Hwa-Ji Shin | University of San Francisco says:
A wise man once said that nation is an imagined community. Its boundaries are imagined through media, symbols and collective memories of wars. One may wonder how these children imagine their nation. When will they realize the pictures of cute cartoons on their backpacks are from a country who once invaded their nation? When they realize it, will they despise these cartoons as part of a collective national memory or embrace them as part of their childhood memory? If every nation is imagined through the minds of innocent children, nationalism may not be a reason for conflict.
Amy Traver | Stony Brook University says:
In 1970, Premier Zhou Enlai initiated the first involuntary population control campaign in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This campaign, which limited each Chinese couple to two children, was replaced in 1978 by more stringent family planning legislation. Commonly referred to as the one-child policy, this new legislation restricted most Chinese couples to one child.
In the late 1970’s, Chinese officials and demographers alike were careful about the language that they used to describe the PRC’s new population control efforts. With little reference to the fact that China comprised 20% of the world’s population on 7% of the world’s arable land, they stressed how fertility limits would hasten the modernization of China’s national agriculture, industry, science and technology, and national defense.
As Vanessa L. Fong describes in Only Hope: Coming of Age under China’s One-Child Policy (2004), this legislation has radically transformed the life of the average Chinese child. Like those captured in this photograph, these children have quickly become the center of the modern Chinese family unit and the PRC’s burgeoning economy. Given an increase in the familiar and national resources now available to them, an extraordinary number of Chinese children can compete in a capitalist world system that they – and their nation – are helping to transform.
Prof. Dr. Li Hanlin | Vice Director, Institute of Sociology, The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing China says:
The Chinese way is for children to follow behind each other, rather than to hold hands in pairs as is done in the United States.
You must be a Rachel Tanur Memorial Prize applicant to submit an essay response.