Talk:Heihaizi
This page is created about the term heihaizu. It is a relatively rare term, that I could not find references about, apart from the blogs and yahoo questions about it. If someone knows about this term, could he be willing to contribute to this page. All the content is from the poor sources I could pick up from google, and not one of them was in the least verifiable. If someone could find any reliable sources that allow the article to stay in wikipedia, please do so. 4l31st3r (talk) 14:30, 10 July 2010 (UTC)
Chinese Name vs. Japanese Name
In the article, you have not given the Chinese hanzi: 黑孩子 (hēi hái zi). The characters are the same whether they are simplified or traditional. What you have given, however, is only the Japanese name 黒核子. The Japanese name has another meaning, but I believe the reason 核 is used here instead of 孩 is simply because 孩 does not exist in Japanese and cannot be typed using Japanese IME. Therefore, 核, which looks like 孩, is used instead as an ateji. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 21:17, 13 July 2010 (UTC)
- Thank you for that. I didn't see it until now. I fixed it (at least I think so...).
4l31st3r (talk) 00:24, 4 August 2010 (UTC)
- Cheers. I was thinking, you may want to change the name of the article to 'Heihaizi', because the way you have it now is a Japanese name for a Chinese phenomenon, despite the fact there is a Chinese name for it. This would be like having an article about, for example, ASBO - a British thing - and having the title of the article in French. :) In fact, what it is called in Japanese is probably irrelevant, unless you are planning to list what it is called in other languages, too --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 11:15, 4 August 2010 (UTC)
- Done, and done. Sorry for the name, but I started researching the subject through and for a Japanese source, so I had this page created before I knew the correct Chinese pronunciation, and then I didn't think to change it. Nevertheless, I had created the relevant redirect pages (black children, heihaizi, hei haizi).
4l31st3r (talk) 20:00, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
- Done, and done. Sorry for the name, but I started researching the subject through and for a Japanese source, so I had this page created before I knew the correct Chinese pronunciation, and then I didn't think to change it. Nevertheless, I had created the relevant redirect pages (black children, heihaizi, hei haizi).
Inadequate definition of the term
The first sentence of the second paragraph states the definition of the term "heihaizi" as follows. quote If a family not permitted to have a second child under the One Child Policy has a second child, the family sometimes chooses not to enter them in the family register, often to avoid financial and social penalties. unquote
There are four problems here. First, this in fact is not a definition, but merely the closest thing to it. Second, we have to read it several times to understand it. Third, even then it is inadequate because it may lead us to understand that ALL children whose births do not conform to law are forever classified as heihaizi, including those whose parents choose to pay the fine and register the birth (thereby lifting the restrictions which characterize the lives of heihaizi.) Fourth, it does not deal with third and later children whereas the law penalizes ALL births after the first.
How about a revision?
quote Any child whose birth is illegal under then-existing Chinese law is likely to be unreported to the authorities through the required birth registration process, the family register. Such unregistered children are heihaizi. Other children of such illegal birth, whose parents choose to properly report the birth and pay the monetary penalty imposed, are not heihaizi. unquote
My revision is longer but clearly more precise.
The fact is that the status of heihaizi is a tragedy that should be understood. I lived in Korea for 12 years focused on the 1980s and discovered a social underclass of children, of primary school age, illiterate and working as servants in the homes of wealthy families. Many of these children had been born out of wedlock. In such cases, the mother's father (who controls all additions to the family register), may in anger refuse to register his grandchild. If the biological father also refuses to register the baby, then the child is destined to mature into a life without access to education and legitimate employment. Some such individuals have risen to overcome the handicap, especially in entertainment, such as popular singers and actresses. But these are rare exceptions. Thus, this is a problem not only in China but also in societies that have no laws restricting birth processes.
What drives this phenomenon in Japan, Korea and China? Confucian norms, in which males control access to family registers, as well as hundreds of other societal processes, both minor and major. Until the mid-20th century in Asia, divorce was a man's prerogative, never (or at least, rarely) a woman's. Today, births to internationally mixed marriages result in the child being assigned the father's nationality, not the mothers. And why are unregistered children not allowed to attend primary school? Because it is the men who dominate the various Asian Ministries of Education who, under the guise of upholding tradition, continue decade after decade to condemn these sub-populations to a life of almost certain servitude.
The list goes on. It would be interesting to see an article discuss the incompatibility between Confucian societies and the UN definition of human rights.