HOW CHINA HAS PRUNED ITS FAMILIES' TREES
Hannah Beech
Time, July 8, 2010
Studying introductory Mandarin at a college in the backwoods of Maine was disorienting enough. But I almost abandoned my linguistic expedition when I turned to the textbook chapter dedicated to all things family. "Cousin" was the deceptively simple heading on the page. Then came a bewildering array of words of which I offer a sampling: father's brother's son who's older than you (tangge), father's brother's daughter who's younger than you (tangmei), mother's sister's son who's younger than you (biaodi), mother's sister's daughter who's older than you (biaojie). Even amid a Maine winter, my brain began to overheat.
My 1980s-era textbook, though, was somewhat out of date. Thirty years ago this September, China began seriously pruning family trees of cousins — and simplifying kinship taxonomy in the process — through the mandatory enforcement of its so-called one-child policy (a misnomer because, among others, rural families and ethnic minorities are allowed to have more than a single kid). By becoming the only country in the world to make compulsory family planning a pillar of national identity, China hoped to prevent a Malthusian nightmare. Chinese authorities believe they succeeded: they claim that the nation's massive social-engineering project has spared the planet 400 million people.
(...) [artículo aquí]
Hannah Beech
Time, July 8, 2010
Studying introductory Mandarin at a college in the backwoods of Maine was disorienting enough. But I almost abandoned my linguistic expedition when I turned to the textbook chapter dedicated to all things family. "Cousin" was the deceptively simple heading on the page. Then came a bewildering array of words of which I offer a sampling: father's brother's son who's older than you (tangge), father's brother's daughter who's younger than you (tangmei), mother's sister's son who's younger than you (biaodi), mother's sister's daughter who's older than you (biaojie). Even amid a Maine winter, my brain began to overheat.
My 1980s-era textbook, though, was somewhat out of date. Thirty years ago this September, China began seriously pruning family trees of cousins — and simplifying kinship taxonomy in the process — through the mandatory enforcement of its so-called one-child policy (a misnomer because, among others, rural families and ethnic minorities are allowed to have more than a single kid). By becoming the only country in the world to make compulsory family planning a pillar of national identity, China hoped to prevent a Malthusian nightmare. Chinese authorities believe they succeeded: they claim that the nation's massive social-engineering project has spared the planet 400 million people.
(...) [artículo aquí]
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment