The politics of the revival of infant abandonment in China, with special reference to hunan

Population and Development Review

Volumn 22, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 77-98

  Johnson, Kay ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CHILD ABANDONMENT; CHILD WELFARE; DEVELOPING COUNTRY; FEMALE INFANTS; GENDER DISPARITY; GIRL CHILD ABANDONMENT; POPOULATION POLICY;

CHINA, HUNAN PROVINCE;

EID: 0030476349     PISSN: 00987921     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/2137687     Document Type: Article

References (70)

1. See, for example. Sten Johansson, Zhao Xuan, and Ola Nygren, "On intriguing sex ratios among live births in China in the 1980s," Journal of Official Statistics 7, no. 1 (1991); also see Sten Johansson and Ola Nygren, "The missing girls of China: A new demographic account," Population and Development Review 17, no. 1 (March 1991): 35-51.
2. See, for example. Sten Johansson, Zhao Xuan, and Ola Nygren, "On intriguing sex ratios among live births in China in the 1980s," Journal of Official Statistics 7, no. 1 (1991); also see Sten Johansson and Ola Nygren, "The missing girls of China: A new demographic account," Population and Development Review 17, no. 1 (March 1991): 35-51.
3. Zeng Yi et al., "Causes and implications of the recent increase in the reported sex ratio at birth in China," Population and Development Review 19, no. 2 (June 1993): 283-302, esp. p. 295.
4. According to Tu Ping, data from the one percent sample of the 1990 census indicate that the sex ratio at birth climbed from 108.5 in 1981 to 114.7 in 1989. This means that there were about 1 million missing female births in 1989. Tu Ping, "Wo guo chusheng yinger xingbiebi wenti tansuo" (An exploration of the sex ratio at birth in China today), Renkou Yanjiu (Population Research), No. 1 (1993): 6-13. Sample surveys in the early 1990s indicate that the number of missing births has continued to grow. See, for example, Nicholas Kristof, "China's crack-down on births: A stunning, and harsh, success," New York Times, 25 April 1993, p. 1.
5. According to Tu Ping, data from the one percent sample of the 1990 census indicate that the sex ratio at birth climbed from 108.5 in 1981 to 114.7 in 1989. This means that there were about 1 million missing female births in 1989. Tu Ping, "Wo guo chusheng yinger xingbiebi wenti tansuo" (An exploration of the sex ratio at birth in China today), Renkou Yanjiu (Population Research), No. 1 (1993): 6-13. Sample surveys in the early 1990s indicate that the number of missing births has continued to grow. See, for example, Nicholas Kristof, "China's crack-down on births: A stunning, and harsh, success," New York Times, 25 April 1993, p. 1.
6. It is significant that most of the information upon which this essay is based comes from civil affairs publications and organizations under the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
7. Author's interviews with officials in Hunan and elsewhere.
8. The segment was aired on the program "Eye to Eye," 17 August 1995.
9. This extremely damning and sensationalized documentary, titled "The Dying Rooms," drew vigorous protests from the Chinese government and is discussed briefly later in this essay.
10. See, for example, Yi Xing, "Fuli jia jingyingde xiaoying - dui Wuhan shi sange fuliyuande diaocha" (Increasing the economic efficiency of welfare - an investigation of three Wuhan welfare centers), Zhongguo Minzheng (China's Civil Affairs), No. 287 (February 1992): 18-19.
11. Perhaps because of the severity of the foundling problem in Hunan or the greater openness of the Hunan provincial leadership, Hunan authorities were also the first to permit international adoptions on any significant scale in the late 1980s, followed shortly by Wuhan in neighboring Hubei. These two places were followed in the early 1990s by more than a dozen other orphanages around the country. In April 1992, an adoption law that applied to foreign (as well as domestic) adoption was passed, and Beijing established a central China Adoption Center to coordinate and control the process of international adoption. Prior to this time, the number of international adoptions, aside from those where adoptive parents were of Chinese ancestry, was only a few dozen a year. In the early 1990s, the numbers climbed to several hundreds per annum to the United States and, according to US Embassy figures in Beijing, reached 2,130 for the fiscal year ending 1 October 1995.
12. See Kay Johnson, "Chinese orphanages: Saving China's abandoned girls," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 30 (July 1993).
13. See Tianjin Tongji Nianjian, 1991 (Tianjin Statistical Yearbook, 1991) (Beijing: Zhongguo Tongji Chuban she, 1991) (Chinese Statistical Publishing House, 1991 ), pp. 594-597; Shanghai Tongji Nianjian, 1993 (Shanghai Statistical Yearbook, 1993) (Beijing: Zhongguo Tongji Chuban she, 1993) (Chinese Statistical Publishing House, 1993), pp. 372-373. On the other hand, the Zhejiang Statistical Yearbook indicated that the number of children brought into the major orphanages doubled between 1985 and 1992. Zhejiang Tongji Nianjian, 1993 (Zhejiang Statistical Yearbook, 1993) (Beijing: Zhongguo Tongji Chuban she, 1993) (Chinese Statistical Publishing House, 1993), p. 446. It may be that Tianjin and Shanghai, both of which are special administrative units, are more insulated from welfare networks in surrounding rural areas compared to other cities like Changsha and Wuhan. Hence, the special administrative status of these cities may protect their municipal orphanages from influxes from rural areas. Orphanages in Changsha and Wuhan get most of their children from surrounding rural areas and not from permanent urban residents. Urban birth planning efforts have been much more routinized, stable, and closely monitored and are supported by numerous institutional arrangements and socioeconomic changes that have fostered a more "natural" fertility transition. See Martin King Whyte and William L. Parish, Urban Life in Contemporary China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), pp. 159-167.
14. See Tianjin Tongji Nianjian, 1991 (Tianjin Statistical Yearbook, 1991) (Beijing: Zhongguo Tongji Chuban she, 1991) (Chinese Statistical Publishing House, 1991 ), pp. 594-597; Shanghai Tongji Nianjian, 1993 (Shanghai Statistical Yearbook, 1993) (Beijing: Zhongguo Tongji Chuban she, 1993) (Chinese Statistical Publishing House, 1993), pp. 372-373. On the other hand, the Zhejiang Statistical Yearbook indicated that the number of children brought into the major orphanages doubled between 1985 and 1992. Zhejiang Tongji Nianjian, 1993 (Zhejiang Statistical Yearbook, 1993) (Beijing: Zhongguo Tongji Chuban she, 1993) (Chinese Statistical Publishing House, 1993), p. 446. It may be that Tianjin and Shanghai, both of which are special administrative units, are more insulated from welfare networks in surrounding rural areas compared to other cities like Changsha and Wuhan. Hence, the special administrative status of these cities may protect their municipal orphanages from influxes from rural areas. Orphanages in Changsha and Wuhan get most of their children from surrounding rural areas and not from permanent urban residents. Urban birth planning efforts have been much more routinized, stable, and closely monitored and are supported by numerous institutional arrangements and socioeconomic changes that have fostered a more "natural" fertility transition. See Martin King Whyte and William L. Parish, Urban Life in Contemporary China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), pp. 159-167.
15. See Tianjin Tongji Nianjian, 1991 (Tianjin Statistical Yearbook, 1991) (Beijing: Zhongguo Tongji Chuban she, 1991) (Chinese Statistical Publishing House, 1991 ), pp. 594-597; Shanghai Tongji Nianjian, 1993 (Shanghai Statistical Yearbook, 1993) (Beijing: Zhongguo Tongji Chuban she, 1993) (Chinese Statistical Publishing House, 1993), pp. 372-373. On the other hand, the Zhejiang Statistical Yearbook indicated that the number of children brought into the major orphanages doubled between 1985 and 1992. Zhejiang Tongji Nianjian, 1993 (Zhejiang Statistical Yearbook, 1993) (Beijing: Zhongguo Tongji Chuban she, 1993) (Chinese Statistical Publishing House, 1993), p. 446. It may be that Tianjin and Shanghai, both of which are special administrative units, are more insulated from welfare networks in surrounding rural areas compared to other cities like Changsha and Wuhan. Hence, the special administrative status of these cities may protect their municipal orphanages from influxes from rural areas. Orphanages in Changsha and Wuhan get most of their children from surrounding rural areas and not from permanent urban residents. Urban birth planning efforts have been much more routinized, stable, and closely monitored and are supported by numerous institutional arrangements and socioeconomic changes that have fostered a more "natural" fertility transition. See Martin King Whyte and William L. Parish, Urban Life in Contemporary China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), pp. 159-167.
16. See Tianjin Tongji Nianjian, 1991 (Tianjin Statistical Yearbook, 1991) (Beijing: Zhongguo Tongji Chuban she, 1991) (Chinese Statistical Publishing House, 1991 ), pp. 594-597; Shanghai Tongji Nianjian, 1993 (Shanghai Statistical Yearbook, 1993) (Beijing: Zhongguo Tongji Chuban she, 1993) (Chinese Statistical Publishing House, 1993), pp. 372-373. On the other hand, the Zhejiang Statistical Yearbook indicated that the number of children brought into the major orphanages doubled between 1985 and 1992. Zhejiang Tongji Nianjian, 1993 (Zhejiang Statistical Yearbook, 1993) (Beijing: Zhongguo Tongji Chuban she, 1993) (Chinese Statistical Publishing House, 1993), p. 446. It may be that Tianjin and Shanghai, both of which are special administrative units, are more insulated from welfare networks in surrounding rural areas compared to other cities like Changsha and Wuhan. Hence, the special administrative status of these cities may protect their municipal orphanages from influxes from rural areas. Orphanages in Changsha and Wuhan get most of their children from surrounding rural areas and not from permanent urban residents. Urban birth planning efforts have been much more routinized, stable, and closely monitored and are supported by numerous institutional arrangements and socioeconomic changes that have fostered a more "natural" fertility transition. See Martin King Whyte and William L. Parish, Urban Life in Contemporary China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), pp. 159-167.
17. There has been little study of the history of abandonment or of the welfare institutions that have dealt with the needs of children without families, so there is no clear picture of the regional distribution of the practice. One in-depth unpublished study of the history of welfare institutions in pre-1949 China that includes orphanages is Raymond Lum, "Philanthropy and public welfare in late Imperial China," Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1985 (Ann Arbor: UMI Dissertation Services). Studies of Chinese adoption, limited primarily to the pre-1949 period, have dealt with family strategies for obtaining an heir or continuing the ancestral line and have not examined whether or how such practices intersect with the fate of abandoned, family-less children, most of whom are girls. See Arthur Wolf and Chieh-shan Huang, Marriage and Adoption in China, 1845-1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980) ; Ann Waltner, Getting An Heir: Adoption and Kinship in Late Imperial China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 1990).
18. There has been little study of the history of abandonment or of the welfare institutions that have dealt with the needs of children without families, so there is no clear picture of the regional distribution of the practice. One in-depth unpublished study of the history of welfare institutions in pre-1949 China that includes orphanages is Raymond Lum, "Philanthropy and public welfare in late Imperial China," Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1985 (Ann Arbor: UMI Dissertation Services). Studies of Chinese adoption, limited primarily to the pre-1949 period, have dealt with family strategies for obtaining an heir or continuing the ancestral line and have not examined whether or how such practices intersect with the fate of abandoned, family-less children, most of whom are girls. See Arthur Wolf and Chieh-shan Huang, Marriage and Adoption in China, 1845-1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980) ; Ann Waltner, Getting An Heir: Adoption and Kinship in Late Imperial China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 1990).
19. There has been little study of the history of abandonment or of the welfare institutions that have dealt with the needs of children without families, so there is no clear picture of the regional distribution of the practice. One in-depth unpublished study of the history of welfare institutions in pre-1949 China that includes orphanages is Raymond Lum, "Philanthropy and public welfare in late Imperial China," Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1985 (Ann Arbor: UMI Dissertation Services). Studies of Chinese adoption, limited primarily to the pre-1949 period, have dealt with family strategies for obtaining an heir or continuing the ancestral line and have not examined whether or how such practices intersect with the fate of abandoned, family-less children, most of whom are girls. See Arthur Wolf and Chieh-shan Huang, Marriage and Adoption in China, 1845-1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980) ; Ann Waltner, Getting An Heir: Adoption and Kinship in Late Imperial China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 1990).
20. Information presented throughout this essay on the history of abandonment in Hunan prior to 1949 is from Hunan shengzhi (Hunan Provincial History), Vol. 21: Yiyao weisheng zhi (Medicine and Health History) (Changsha: Hunan renmin chuban she, 1988) (Hunan People's Publishing House, 1988), pp. 566-575.
21. Information presented throughout this essay on the history of abandonment in Hunan prior to 1949 is from Hunan shengzhi (Hunan Provincial History), Vol. 21: Yiyao weisheng zhi (Medicine and Health History) (Changsha: Hunan renmin chuban she, 1988) (Hunan People's Publishing House, 1988), pp. 566-575.
22. This is not necessarily the case everywhere in China, especially in some minority areas where abandonment also exists on some scale. See, for example, Ren Xinlai, "Nan Jiang guer wentide diaocha yu jiejue" (Investigation and resolution of southern Xinjiang's orphan problem), Zhongguo Minzheng (China's Civil Affairs), No. 225 (December 1987): 24-25. Factors that motivate abandonment in many cultures, such as "illegitimacy," poverty, family disintegration, or disabilities, do not necessarily relate to or interact strongly with gender. While wide-spread abandonment was a problem in many parts of Europe in the nineteenth century, and in some places girls were abandoned more often than boys, it was by no means a single-sex practice. See David I. Kertzer, Sacrificed for Honor: Italian Infant Abandonment and the Politics of Reproductive Control (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993).
23. This is not necessarily the case everywhere in China, especially in some minority areas where abandonment also exists on some scale. See, for example, Ren Xinlai, "Nan Jiang guer wentide diaocha yu jiejue" (Investigation and resolution of southern Xinjiang's orphan problem), Zhongguo Minzheng (China's Civil Affairs), No. 225 (December 1987): 24-25. Factors that motivate abandonment in many cultures, such as "illegitimacy," poverty, family disintegration, or disabilities, do not necessarily relate to or interact strongly with gender. While wide-spread abandonment was a problem in many parts of Europe in the nineteenth century, and in some places girls were abandoned more often than boys, it was by no means a single-sex practice. See David I. Kertzer, Sacrificed for Honor: Italian Infant Abandonment and the Politics of Reproductive Control (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993).
24. For a description of local efforts elsewhere in China during the Qing dynasty see Yu Chih, "Infant Protection Society," in Patricia Ebrey, Chinese Civilization and Society (New York: Free Press, 1981), pp. 219-223.
25. In the early 1850s, these Hunanese-funded institutions were joined by an increasing number of foreign missionary-run foundling homes. English, American, German, and Italian missionaries set up "several tens" of foundling homes in Hunan in the late nineteenth century, according to the compiled history.
26. It has been argued elsewhere that Confucian efforts to support orphanages were largely symbolic, meant to provide moral example and a context for legitimizing the good deeds of the elite rather than to ameliorate suffering on a large scale. See Lum, cited in note 12, pp. 197-211; and William T. Rowe, Hankow: Conflict and Community in a Chinese City. 1796-1895 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989), pp. 105-106, 345-352. But the scale of operations of the Province City Foundling Institute alone suggests that these efforts, at least in some periods, were far more than symbolic and were indeed intended to have some demographic impact on the identified social problem - the abandonment and killing of girls.
27. It has been argued elsewhere that Confucian efforts to support orphanages were largely symbolic, meant to provide moral example and a context for legitimizing the good deeds of the elite rather than to ameliorate suffering on a large scale. See Lum, cited in note 12, pp. 197-211; and William T. Rowe, Hankow: Conflict and Community in a Chinese City. 1796-1895 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989), pp. 105-106, 345-352. But the scale of operations of the Province City Foundling Institute alone suggests that these efforts, at least in some periods, were far more than symbolic and were indeed intended to have some demographic impact on the identified social problem - the abandonment and killing of girls.
28. A recent article by two Western demographers also finds that the incidence of infanticide in China generally declined precipitously during this period. See Ansley Coale and Judith Banister, "Five decades of missing females in China," Demography 31, no. 3 (August 1994).
29. Yueyang City Civil Affairs Department, "Qian tan qiying wenti" (A brief talk about the foundling problem), in Zhongguo Minzheng (China's Civil Affairs), No. 215 (February 1987): 21-22.
30. Hunan Province Civil Affairs Bureau, Social Welfare Section, "Guanyu dangqian shehui qiying wentide diaocha" (Investigation concerning the current social problem of foundlings), Zhongguo Minzheng (China's Civil Affairs), No. 274 (January 1992): 34-35.
31. While it seems that there are larger proportions of disabled children in some of the major orphanages in the north, such as one in Tianjing visited in summer 1995 by the CBS film crew mentioned earlier, to my knowledge this apparent fact has not been investigated carefully.
32. "Fulishiye" (Welfare activities), in Wuhan shi zhi (Wuhan Municipal History), Wuhan daxue chuban she (Wuhan: Wuhan University Press), 1990, p. 66.
33. Johnson, cited in note 10, p. 69.
34. Discussed in John S. Aird, Slaughter of the Innocents: Coercive Birth Control in China (Washington, D.C.: AEI Press, 1990), p. 74.
35. Susan Greenhalgh, Zhu Chuzhu, and Li Nan, "Restraining population growth in three Chinese villages, 1988-93," Population and Development Review 20, no. 2 (June 1994): 365-395.
36. Susan Greenhalgh and Jiali Li, "Engendering reproductive policy and practice in peasant China: For a feminist demography of reproduction," Signs 20, no. 3 (Spring 1995): 601-641.
37. See, for example, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power (New York: Random House, 1994), chapter 6, especially pp. 182-183.
38. While some rural areas adjacent to cities have begun to establish rudimentary social security schemes, and some efforts have been started to set up local funds and insurance schemes for families with no sons, these efforts fall far short of the guaranteed social security provided to state-sector workers for the last 45 years. How credible they are in the minds of peasants who have seen policies come and go is also open to question. Most of the countryside remains without any social security programs. Figures from a 1987 survey showed that pensions represented less than 5 percent of the income of the elderly in rural areas. See Institute of Population Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (ed.), A Selection of Papers Presented at the International Symposium on Population Aging in China (Beijing: New World Press, 1993), p. 128. The State Statistical Bureau's rural household survey of Sichuan for 1990 found that only 2.5 percent of the total income of households with an average age of 60 or more came from state-supported pensions. In Liaoning Province the figure from the same survey was 1.1 percent. I am grateful to D. Gale Johnson for sharing these data with me.
39. Even in the face of continuing social security needs, the desire to have many sons has certainly diminished, and there is much evidence to indicate that many, probably most, peasants today would prefer a son and a daughter over two sons, suggesting that the value of and desire for daughters is increasing. For example, the data from a one percent sample fertility survey in Hebei in 1985 showed that the vast majority of rural and urban women who had one son but no daughters would prefer their next child, if permitted one, to be a girl. I thank Liming Liu for sharing these data with me. Liming Liu, "Urban-rural differences regarding parents' preference for a son in China," Master's thesis. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1995. Survey data from other provinces have shown similar results. Greenhalgh found similar views in her survey of Shaanxi villages in the late 1980s and early 1990s. See Greenhalgh, Zhu, and Li, cited in note 25.
40. See Greenhalgh and Li, cited in note 26, for a discussion of how present fertility desires and behavior are not merely a "revival of tradition" but are shaped by new political and economic circumstances. The current obsession with sons in the culture of the reform era is the major theme of the movie Women's Story, made by a woman director, Peng Xiaolian. The film depicts several manifestations of this phenomenon in a rural area close to Beijing in the late 1980s. It shows the taunts and social humiliation suffered by the members of a sonless family, as well as the desperate "guerrilla pregnancy" of a woman fleeing from family planning authorities, obsessed with the need to bear a son at any cost.
41. For a fascinating though brief account of one village cadre's experience in dealing with these difficulties see Huang Shumin, The Spiral Road: Change in a Chinese Village Through the Eyes of a Communist Party Leader (Boulder: Westview, 1989), pp. 175-186.
42. At 1990 exchange rates this range was about US$16-$35. The average per capita rural income in Hunan in 1990 was probably around 400 yuan. The care of foundlings was relatively costly, partly because of the need to supply milk powder for infant formula.
43. This discussion refers only to adoption in China, not international adoption, which even today accounts for only a small percentage of Chinese adoption. In 1991, fewer than 100 Chinese children were adopted by US citizens; perhaps a few dozen of these came from Hunan, one of the first provinces to allow foreign adoptions.
44. These restrictive regulations, widely practiced with slight variations from area to area in the 1980s, were incorporated into the first national adoption law of the People's Republic in April 1992.
45. According to interviews conducted in several locales, the enforcement of adoption regulations seems to vary widely. Some adoptive parents with biological children suffer no penalty while others report being heavily fined. Stories in the Chinese media have reported cases of people who have taken in abandoned infants with the intention of adopting them, only to have the authorities fine them and take the children away. See, for example, Xiandai jiating bao (Modern Family Magazine), Nanjing, 10 May 1995, p. 1.
46. Author's interviews.
47. Jiang Wandi, "Development of women's rights in China," Beijing Review, 15-21 November 1993, p. 20.
48. The following discussion is taken from a summary of the case and the public discussion it aroused, in Jiang He, "Shei lai baohu Xiong Qi?" (Who will protect Xiong Qi?), Zhongguo Minzheng (China's Civil Affairs), No. 295 (October 1993): 36-39 ; and from part of the original discussion that appeared in an article by Pi Xiaoming, "Xiao ku hai Xiong Qi fuyang an" (The adoption case of poor little Xiong Qi), Nongjianu Baishitong (Village Women's Affairs), No. 8 (1993): 4-9.
49. The following discussion is taken from a summary of the case and the public discussion it aroused, in Jiang He, "Shei lai baohu Xiong Qi?" (Who will protect Xiong Qi?), Zhongguo Minzheng (China's Civil Affairs), No. 295 (October 1993): 36-39 ; and from part of the original discussion that appeared in an article by Pi Xiaoming, "Xiao ku hai Xiong Qi fuyang an" (The adoption case of poor little Xiong Qi), Nongjianu Baishitong (Village Women's Affairs), No. 8 (1993): 4-9.
50. Jiang He, cited in note 38.
51. In commemoration of children's day, 1 June 1994, the China Charity Federation (Zhongguo cishan zonghui) published a pamphlet (n.p., n.d.) with the signed endorsement of 25 top leaders supporting, in their own words, a "plan to help orphans."
52. For example, "Yi dui Meiguo fufu fuzhu gu can shou dao Wuhan shi zhengfu biaozhang" (American couple supports orphans and disabled children, receives honor from the Wuhan government), Renmin Ribao (People's Daily), 1 June 1994.
53. See for example an advertisement in Renmin Ribao (People's Daily), 5 May 1994, p. 8 for a performance to raise charitable donations to "Save the orphans" (jiu guer). Also see He Yi, "You jiang mujuan yu fuli shiye" (Charitable donations and welfare affairs), Renmin Ribao (People's Daily), 11 June 1994, p. 8.
54. Author's interviews.
55. See for example Cui Lili, "Under the flag of humanitarianism," Beijing Review, 4-10 July 1994.
56. There has been no careful study of this issue and estimates are rough at best. In general, the estimates are for infants (first year of life) and are given as annual percentages. Mortality rates among older children and among children resident for a longer period of time are usually much lower and are not included in these discussions. The most extensive statistics on mortality rates in Chinese orphanages appear in Zhongguo Minzheng Tongji Nianjian, 1990 (China's Civil Affairs Statistical Yearbook, 1990) (Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Chuban she, 1990) (Chinese Society Publishing House, 1990), pp. 100-103. These figures are difficult to assess precisely and are only for 1989. But they suggest that death rates for entering populations were in the range of 40 to 60 percent.
57. "Eye to Eye," CBS, 17 August 1995.
58. A visitor to a welfare center not far from Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province, was told in 1992 that only around 20 percent of the abandoned infants they receive survive the first year. As in other welfare centers investigated, most deaths occur soon after arrival. However, the percentage of disabled infants was quite high in this facility compared to those reported in Hunan and other southern areas; this circumstance would make survival rates lower regardless of conditions in the welfare center.
59. "The Dying Rooms: China's Darkest Secret," BBC, 14 June 1995. A recent Human Rights Watch report, Death by Default: A Policy of Fatal Neglect in China 's State Orphanages (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1996), goes even further to assert that there is a national policy to reduce the population of abandoned infants by the "routine murder of children through deliberate starvation." The report provides no direct evidence for this extreme assertion, basing its conclusions on evidence of intentional abuse in one institution, coupled with evidence for high mortality rates throughout the orphanage system. As argued in this article, the latter can more reasonably be explained by factors other than deliberate policy.
60. "The Dying Rooms: China's Darkest Secret," BBC, 14 June 1995. A recent Human Rights Watch report, Death by Default: A Policy of Fatal Neglect in China 's State Orphanages (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1996), goes even further to assert that there is a national policy to reduce the population of abandoned infants by the "routine murder of children through deliberate starvation." The report provides no direct evidence for this extreme assertion, basing its conclusions on evidence of intentional abuse in one institution, coupled with evidence for high mortality rates throughout the orphanage system. As argued in this article, the latter can more reasonably be explained by factors other than deliberate policy.
61. Author's interviews with welfare workers. A pediatrician previously involved in the care of such children found that common, normally non-life-threatening viruses can be lethal among such a severely weakened infant population.
62. Kertzer, cited in note 14, pp. 138-144. Kertzer characterized nineteenth-century Italian foundling homes as "slaughter houses." In 1950, Communist Party authorities characterized a large Italian-run foundling home in Wuhan in precisely the same way. In fact, most foundling homes in China prior to 1949, whether run by foreigners or Chinese, had similarly horrific death rates, frequently over 90 percent.
63. If all of the abandoned girls become part of the "missing," that is, remain uncounted due to death, due to being hidden by caregivers who find them and informally "adopt" them, or due to being unregistered or uncounted in welfare centers, they might account for a significant percentage of the total in recent years. Many of the abandoned girls who are taken to welfare centers are eventually "returned" to census statistics by local public security and civil affairs offices, while bureaucratic obstacles leave many surviving foundlings in statistical limbo, as indicated by the discussion above concerning problems of registration. Those who die or are never recovered, of course, become a permanent part of the population of the "missing girls." No effort has been made to relate the significance of the abandoned girl population to the much studied problem of the "missing girls."
64. Sheryl WuDunn, "China's castaway babies: Cruel practice lives on," New York Times, 26 February 1991.
65. Lu Hui, "Children without parents," China Today, September 1994.
66. See, for example, Liu Mingli, "Baba, Mama, bie diu diao wo . . ." (Papa, Mama, don't throw me away . . .), Shehui Gongzuo (Social Work) 1 (1993): 39.
67. On the other hand there will be some "accumulation" or holdovers from year to year, as well. We simply do not know enough to be able to interpret these or any other publicly available figures of which I am aware.
68. Stringent legal requirements that adoptive couples be childless make it particularly likely that many de facto adoptions occur without benefit of legal registration.
69. Author's interview.
70. The original text of these notes was provided to the author.