Family Planning Tradition for 600 Years

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, September 02, 2002

Family Planning Tradition for 600 Years

It's the perfect domestic balance:each family has two children -- one boy and one girl -- and it's been that way in one tiny corner of China for 600 years.

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It's the perfect domestic balance: each family has two children -- one boy and one girl -- and it's been that way in one tiny corner of China for 600 years.

The 758 Dong nationality villagers of Zhanli, in Congjiang County, western province of Guizhou, have been using traditional herbal medicines in their family planning for centuries.

In sharp contrast with most of China, where more children are considered the path to happiness, the Dong villagers believe more children are burdensome.

"On our limited land, hard work ensures our survival, but the population mustn't grow at the same time. Just as we can't overload a boat, because it will overturn in dangerous shoals," sings the hamlet's song leader, Wu Zhiwen, 58, in a traditional Dong song.

It expresses an idea behind China's modern family planning.

Other ancient songs preach the theory, such as, "Just like a nest of birds on the hill, too many fledglings may work the mother to death. But if there are only two, they can grow well and escape starvation", and "We may feel safe at heart only if we have just one boy and one girl in each family".

Dong people are famous for their addiction to singing, with which they not only entertain themselves, but pass traditional beliefs and wisdom down the generations.

Without writing, their history has existed in songs and tales, telling how their ancestors moved from Wuzhou, in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, about 800 years ago, and were alarmed by a sudden population boom.

They believe that if a population expands without more land, it will lead to famine, crime and even war.

When Zhanli was set up about 600 years ago, their forefathers agreed to control the population, limiting each family to one boy and one girl.

With rich resources, the Dong invented medicines for contraception, abortion and sterilization.

They even boast a medicine named "huanhuacao" (flowers and grasses interchangeable) which they claim can decide the gender ofan embryo.

However, says Wu Zhengguang, 38-year-old leader of the village, they lack scientific proof for the claim.

Village accountant Wu Yongfu, 26, says that of the 154 families, only five failed to follow the one boy, one girl model -- three have two boys and two have two girls.

Wu Wenyu, 57, has two daughters. He says the tradition aims to control numbers of boys because one more boy means one more family.

"Our first child is a girl, and the second one can be either boy or girl, so my wife didn't have the huanhuacao medicine," he says.

"With more than two kids, boys will inherit less land and girls will have to put up with less silver. They will be looked down upon by others, and no one will marry them because of their poverty," he says.

Land is inherited by boys and silver by girls, usually for decoration and a symbol of family wealth in Zhanli.

Wu Naihua, 40, has two boys. "An ancestor of my husband once supported the parents of two girls who could not take care of them after marriage, so the ancestor or one his offspring was entitled to have two boys."

The village has succeeded in controlling the population and keeping the ecological balance. It boasts 1.55 mu (0.1 hectare) of farmland per capita, about twice the county's average, and higher than the national average of 1.4 mu (0.09 hectare). In China, 666 counties still have less than 0.8 mu (0.05 hectare) of farmland per capita, the subsistence line set by the United Nations.

The annual harvest in Zhanli can keep ordinary families for twoyears and excess land is used to plant glutinous rice which is for delicious food stuffs, but in low yield.

Most Asian countries find it difficult to promote family planning and China has been criticized since the late 1970s for advocating population control.

However, peasants in Zhanli have a natural tendency to control their population, which has attracted attention from the State Family Planning Commission, the national population information center and the population research center of China's People's University.

"China's family planning policy has often been attacked as a violation of human rights in the past, but the primitive population culture in Zhanli proves population control is a basic way to guarantee human survival and development rights. The primitive village is just like an epitome of a country, and the population culture vindicates China's family planning policy," says Zhang Xiaosong, a respected anthropologist in Guizhou Province.

"Its essence is survival wisdom," she adds.

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