Children of China

                Currently, in China, as many of you all know, there are strict guidelines enforced on it’s citizens regarding family planning. When Mao Ze Dong took control of the country in 1949, there were roughly 500 million people living in China.  On January 6, 2005 the population grew to reach the mark of 1.3 billion. Social conformity to population control in China has been adopted as the norm.  Most families in the city struggle to care for one child that they could not foresee dividing resources among another addition to the family.

                Social status plays a large role in the outcome of family needs and desires for children. Historically male children were looked upon with great esteem.  Males were anticipated to carry on as the family heir and expected to care for parents in old age.

 There are several positive results that have stemmed from the strictly enfored population control.   The narrator of One Child Policy explains that since China’s population control there have been much better health services provided for women.  In the urban areas, women are applauded for their contributions to society and adherance to the policy by having one child.  Classes are offered at the work place for use of contraceptives as well as pre-natal care and preparation.  In rural areas women are visited by traveling aids that check to see that residents adhere to the law as well as examine the health of the mother and child.  Such changes in health policy shows “reduction of the risks of death or injury associated with pregnancy” (12 min).

Up until 2002 it had been legal practice to use physical for in preventing women to reproduce.  Abortion and sterilization were forced upon women not willing to obey the law.  This practice has now been outlawed.   Repercussions for families having more than one child include a fine, destruction of home, or loss of personal land and/or property.

China has the “biggest, most conspicuous,…and most organized family planning in the world, but it is not the only one that has any kind of coercion” (15:50). Methods practiced by the government prohibit the revealing of a fetus’ sex prior to birth.  In 1994, this was made illegal.  In the last sixteen years doctor’s have been bribed by the traditional token red envelopes of money to reveal a baby’s sex before birth.  Often times, when a female is identified the parents would go forward with an abortion. 

The live birth’s in china exceed 20,000 children per day and “for every 100 girls there are 120 boys” (17:30).  Such results leave imbalance in society. Hieghtened numbers of men in the population brings concerns from increased violence to lack of female suitors.

In recent day to combat with the inflictions on the unbalanced society, cities like Shanghai are opening up and allowing a Two Child Policy.  There is concern that the work force will not be met adequately since one out of five citizens is over sixty.  The issues being pressed are labor shortages and lacking care for elderly (1min).  A woman interveiwed explains that  “Here in Shanghai the aging of the population is a very stricking pehnomenon 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“ (1:12).   In order to combat and help balance out the demographic structure only specific families are permitted to have second children.  Parents that are both only children themselves, are permitted to have two children.  In some situations it is relaxed enough that if only one parent is an only child then the couple is permitted to have two children. 

Although this is permitted many families opt not to grow their family due to the fact that they do not have the desire or resources. Children are not cared for by their working parents.  Workdays span from around eight in the morning to as late as seven at night.  Children are left to be tended to by their grandparents or nanny, called an “ayi”.  Ayi’s are usually migrant women that have left the countryside seeking employment to earn wages to care for their own family that they left behind.  Children need money for school, clothes, and food, and that is what the mother sends home.  Children feel abandoned by their mothers and write letters and messages explaining that they don’t need the money, they want to have their mothers.

Countryside families are sometimes allowed to have two children to help with labor. Children are left in the countryside when a parent migrates because they belong to a different class.  They are not residents of the urban cities and therefore cannot attend the city schools.  In one instance a immigrant neighborhood shows a school being built to educate the children of the migrant workers that relocated from the country.

China has done well to maintain and enforce the population control.  With growth and development increasing exponentially it is something that is deemed somewhat necessary.  Cultural beliefs have influence not so favorable results though better healthcare and education for women is an added benefit. 

Resources:
One Child Policyhttp://www.youtube.com/user/journeymanpictures?blend=1&ob=4#p/search/1/H4OWJlyaHt0
Two Child Policyhttp://www.youtube.com/user/journeymanpictures?blend=1&ob=4#p/search/36/qS9TtKxFL4o

Other Links:
Kidnappedhttp://www.youtube.com/user/journeymanpictures?blend=1&ob=4#p/search/39/lhEtYhS1gJM
The Dating Gamehttp://www.youtube.com/user/journeymanpictures?blend=1&ob=4#p/search/35/cWYRaHX7yqw

The Otherside of Immigration

            Illegal immigration to this country is a problem.  US constituents will claim that the issues lie in the fact that they are bleeding the system.  Working under the table evading taxes, using medical care that should go to Americans, and infiltrating the school system holding back the kids of this nation.  In the documentary “The Otherside of Immigration” a group of emigrants of Mexico were interviewed on their perspectives as to why they would leave their lands to head toward this capitalistic nation far from their family, loved ones, and comforts of home.

            Interestingly enough, the reasons for leaving are far from the reasons for staying.  Economies in the agricultural market are forced to conform to the demands of the US.  Many of the arriving immigrants are previous land laborers that could no longer find work and decent pay enough to support starving families.  Prior to the new immigration laws, laborers were able to travel much more easily between the US and Mexico.  Since the strict ban on immigration many people who are here working do not leave, they fear that leaving would jeopardize the ability to provide resources to take care of their families back home.  Sojourners would work and save substantially to live off for some time.  When funds dwindled they would return to the US and work again.

            Bans on immigration forced many to stay here working indeterminately. What has happed in their hometowns varies but specific trends are developing.  Some extreme cases document towns that have not remaining residents below the age sixty five.  Many towns and cities have overwhelming populations of women and young children.  Husbands, fathers, and older children have all gone seeking employment to help those who struggle and are left behind.  The social dynamic is in flux.  Children, especially young boys, resort to violence and abnormal behavior without father figures to set examples.  Children surveyed in an elementary school all have family members living in the states.  They all anticipate the day when they too can move here.  The lure is more money, fancy clothes, and fast cars. 

            Tales of the struggle are left out of the memoirs brought back.  The long hours of work, close living quarters, and individual struggles are kept out of the victorious tales shared with eager ears of homelands.  Crossing the border is no simple feat, life is a gamble and the stakes are high.  Fortunate ones fight to achieve their dues.

            Enlightening are the tales shared with an audience that seldom has opportunity to listen from a source that rarely has the translation available for eager ears.  Through lack of communication and faulty interpretation we have been missing pieces for years.  Finally light is shed on the truth revealing the connection between the sacrifice of loving fathers, mothers, sons & daughters; the unfamiliar faces of strangers, not so strange, that clean our homes, landscape our yards, and build our houses.

            It’s funny, we are the United States of America, not the United States of the Lower Portion of North America. Somehow we “Americans” seem to forget the other “Americans” of Central and South America.  We couldn’t be here if they weren’t here either.

Tattoo Numba One

In Chris McKinney’s “The Tattoo” many sociological concepts are evident.  One of the key aspects of the social schemata is the influence that the prison environment has on the prisoners.  The Halawa prison in particular is unique to other national prisons due to the pluralistic nature of Hawaii.  Hawaii itself demonstrates structural pluralism, as Hawaiian culture is existent within the confines of the US though both cultures have very different structures.  Within the prison there is cultural pluralism between the prisoners and the guards.  Inmates mentioned were Hawaiian, Filipino, Samoan, Korean, Vietnamese, and haole (40).  The pacific culture were seemingly different yet respected.  In prison the cultural values all seem to stack up in unison when the stratification of prisoners is concerned.  The behavior behind bars and the crime that put them there ultimately determines the rank among other inmates(40).

            From the beginning of Ken’s story the components of society grow from his recollections.  His dreamlike encounter of his birth shares the strong connection that he has with his ancestry and the culture of which he is born a member.  The fishing trip, one of his earlier memories as a boy, demonstrates the elements of friends and family.  It is evident that the society is more focused on the ties of relations and the interconnectedness of families and people.  Today’s society seems much different as people exploit their own brother or sister or father or mother just to get ahead financially. 

Having and sharing time with cousins, aunties, and uncles seems to be an important family element.  These aspects of the non-material culture grow in detail as Ken reveals.  Ken’s dad enforces from the beginning the vision he has for his masculine son.  This is evident when Dad throws him into the ocean when he didn’t know how to swim (17) and when he makes him touch the shark they caught that was still living when they brought it to shore (24).  There seems to be this expectation of his son to fulfill the characteristic role in society.  As Ken grows so does his father’s expectation.  Ken’s mom’s influence is not as strong as his fathers since she died when Ken was still a boy.  His mother was very fond of him and often in ways smothered him with motherly love.  The impact of his grandpa is tremendous.  Learning through his stories distinguishes them as immigrants and somewhat of a minority.

Education was an important aspect for Ken.  His father mentions a couple times not to speak pidgin and that he should speak properly like his mother.  The fact that she was a schoolteacher and read great literary works also rubbed off on Ken.  He tended to have higher aspirations and this sense of a greater enlightenment that he would achieve great things. Language plays a huge role in this factor.  The differentiation between proper English and Pidgin is also a part of cultural assimilation.  Ken in this case learned to speak both and used them accordingly.  As respect he was not to speak pidgin in front of his father, but in prison to gain respect he spoke it in front of other inmates.  Ethnophaulisms are also brought into picture through this example, the term haole and jap are used in derogatory means against the white and Japanese.

Power is a common theme throughout the story.  The power that Ken earns through his first fight, playing football and drug dealing has an effect on his development image of himself. Koa accompanies Ken through many of his momentous life experiences.  His best friend and affectionately deemed brother is his partner in crime. Koa blocked for Ken in football and when getting chased by a rancher.  Together the two young men sold weed and then cocaine.  Throughout these phases of life they were there for each other.  The emphasis on family is important here again as well.  The relationships established between them fostered great trust.

Social stratification is something that falls into several different parts of Ken’s life.  He usually seems to have power either by force and strength or through the resources he has.  There is prestige in his role in the ring of society of which he consorts.  Especially when he and Koa are selling drugs at the cockfights.

Many elements come together in this book.  The span of Ken’s life applies to many different scenarios, environments, and relationships.  There are many different aspects of socialization applicable to his life experiences and his biographical tale shared with Cal.