Female infanticide in China: Difference between revisions
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A white paper published by the Chinese government in 1980 stated that the practice of female infanticide was a "feudalistic evil"{{efn|"Infanticide through drowning and abandoning female babies is an evil custom left over from feudal times."{{sfn|Nie|2005|p=50}} }} The states official position on the practice is that it is a carryover from feudal times, and is not a result of the states [[One-child policy|one-child policy]]. Jing-Bao Nie argues however that it would be "inconceivable" to believe there are no link between the states family planning policies and female infanticide.{{sfn|Nie|2005|p=50}} |
A white paper published by the Chinese government in 1980 stated that the practice of female infanticide was a "feudalistic evil"{{efn|"Infanticide through drowning and abandoning female babies is an evil custom left over from feudal times."{{sfn|Nie|2005|p=50}} }} The states official position on the practice is that it is a carryover from feudal times, and is not a result of the states [[One-child policy|one-child policy]]. Jing-Bao Nie argues however that it would be "inconceivable" to believe there are no link between the states family planning policies and female infanticide.{{sfn|Nie|2005|p=50}} |
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==sources== |
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<ref name=Coale|1994|pp=459-479>{{cite journal|last=Coale|first=Ansley J.|coauthors=Judith Banister|title=Five decades of missing females in China|journal=Demography|year=1994|volume=31|issue=3|pages=459-479|doi=10.2307/2061752|url=http://link.springer.com/article/10.2307/2061752|publisher=Springer-Verlag}}</ref> |
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==Footnotes== |
==Footnotes== |
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Revision as of 11:18, 15 October 2013
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China has a history of female infanticide spanning 2000 years,[1] with the arrival of christian missionaries in the late sixteenth century the missionaries discovered female infanticide was being practiced, newborns were seen thrown into rivers or onto rubbish piles. In the seventeenth century Matteo Ricci documented that the practice occurred in several of China's provinces and that the primary reason for the practice was poverty.[2]
In 19th century China female infanticide was widespread, readings from Qing texts shows a prevalence of the term ni nü, (to drown girls) and drowning was the common method used to kill female children. Other methods used were suffocation and starvation.[a][4] Leaving a child exposed to the elements was another method of killing an infant, the child would be placed in a basket which was then placed in a tree. Buddhist nunneries created "baby towers" for people to leave a child, it is however unclear as to whether the child was being left for adoption or if it had already died and were being left for burial. In 1845 in the province of Jiangxi, a missionary wrote that these children survived for up to two days while exposed to the elements, and that those passing by would pay no attention.[5]
The majority of China's provinces practiced female infanticide during the 19th century. In 1878 French Jesuit missionary, Gabriel Palatre,[6] collated documents from 13 provinces and the Annales de la Sainte-Enfance(Annals of the Holy Childhood), also found evidence of infanticide in Shanxi and Sichuan. According to the information collated by Palatre the practice was more widely spread in the Southeastern provinces and in the Lower Yangzi River region.[7]
In China the practice of female infanticide was not wholly condoned. Buddhism in particular was quite forceful in their condemnation of it. Buddhists wrote that the killing of young girls would bring bad karma, conversely those who saved a young girl's life either through intervening or through presents of money or food would earn good karma, leading to a prosperous life, a long life and success for their sons. However the Buddhist belief in reincarnation meant that the death of an infant was not final as the child would be reborn, this belief eased the guilt felt over female infanticide.[1]
The Confucian attitude towards female infanticide was conflicted. By placing value on age over youth, Confucian filial piety lessened the value of children. The Confucian emphasis on the family led to increasing dowries which in turn led to a girl being far more expensive to raise over a boy causing families to feel they could not afford as many daughters. The Confucian custom of keeping the male within the family meant that the money spent on a daughter's upbringing along with the dowry would be lost when she married, and as such girls were called "money-losing merchandise". Conversely the Confucian belief of Ren led Confucian intellectuals to support the idea that female infanticide was wrong and that the practice would upset the balance between yin and yang.[8]
A white paper published by the Chinese government in 1980 stated that the practice of female infanticide was a "feudalistic evil"[b] The states official position on the practice is that it is a carryover from feudal times, and is not a result of the states one-child policy. Jing-Bao Nie argues however that it would be "inconceivable" to believe there are no link between the states family planning policies and female infanticide.[9]
sources
Footnotes
- ^ "As soon as the little girls are born, they are plunged into the water in order to drown them or force is applied to their bodies in order to suffocate them or they are strangled with human hands. And something even more deplorable is that there are servants who place the girl in the chamber pot or in the basin used for the birth, which is still filled with water and blood and, shut away there, they die miserably. And what is even more monstrous is that if the mother is not cruel enough to take the life of her daughter, then her father-in-law, mother-inlaw, or husband agitates her by their words to kill the girl."[3]
- ^ "Infanticide through drowning and abandoning female babies is an evil custom left over from feudal times."[9]
References
- ^ a b Mungello 2009, p. 134.
- ^ Mungello 2009, p. 137.
- ^ Mungello 2008, p. 17.
- ^ Mungello 2008, p. 9.
- ^ Mungello 2008, p. 10.
- ^ Harrison 2008, p. 77.
- ^ Mungello 2008, p. 13.
- ^ Mungello 2009, pp. 136–137.
- ^ a b Nie 2005, p. 50.
- ^ Coale, Ansley J. (1994). "Five decades of missing females in China". Demography. 31 (3). Springer-Verlag: 459–479. doi:10.2307/2061752.
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Bibliography
- Harrison, Henrietta (2008). "A penny for the little Chinese: The French Holy Childhood Association in China, 1843- 1951". American Historical Review. 113 (1): 72–92. doi:10.1086/ahr.113.1.72.
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- Mungello, D. E. (2009). The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500–1800 (3rd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-5797-0.
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- Mungello, D. E. (2008). Drowning Girls in China: Female Infanticide in China since 1650. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0742555310.
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- Nie, Jing-Bao (2005). Behind the Silence: Chinese Voices on Abortion. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0742523715.
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