Mingxin Cynthia Zhang

According to the Chinese health authorities, the gender imbalance among newborns as "the most serious and prolonged social issue" in the world, is a direct ramification of the country's strict one-child policy (1980-2015). Like most Asian nations, China has a traditional bias for sons. Many families abandoned baby girls. Later, with the availability of prenatal tests, people aborted female fetuses to ensure their one child is a son. The roots of the current squeeze go back a generation to 1980. A preference for a son is traditional in Chinese Confucianism for a number of reasons: people think sons continue the family line as well as carry on the family name; have a higher earning capacity; perform ancestral worship; and are generally recipients for inheritance, while girls are often considered an economic burden. After marriage, they typically become members of their husband’s family and cease to have responsibility for their aging or ill birth parents.

I have made a monument for those girls who never had a chance to be born. Although I believe one child policy started with the best intentions by the Chinese government (limiting population to avoid widespread starvation) led to a backfire because of biases that went back generations.