'One Child Nation' Documentary Explores The Dark Side Of Chinese Policy
Director Nanfu Wang, who grew up in rural China, has made a film about the painful, unintended consequences of the Chinese government's one-child rule — including how it affected her own family.
Filmmaker Nanfu Wang grew up in rural China under the country's one-child policy, which was announced in 1979 and not officially rescinded until 2015.
Born in 1985, Wang never knew a life without it — as a kid, she remembers seeing propaganda promoting the rule everywhere.
"At some point, it just became a normal part of life, just like the air, the water, the tree," she says. "And you just stop paying attention, stop questioning, because it has always been there."
There were propaganda matchboxes, lunchboxes, murals and songs on TV.
Growing up, Wang remember seeing cartoons that depicted
