One Child Nation (2019) - full transcript
After becoming a mother, a filmmaker uncovers the untold history of China's one-child policy and the generations of parents and children forever shaped by this social experiment.
[♪♪]
[CHILDREN SINGING
INDISTINCTLY]
[♪♪]
[CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING]
[CHANTING IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
I was born in China in 1985,
a time
when China's population crisis
was making headlines
around the world.
There are more
than a billion Chinese.
That one big statistic,
more than anything else,
is at the heart
of that country's
huge economic problems.
MAN:
By the middle
of the next century,
if China's families have
an average of three children,
there will be starvation.
However,
with one child per family,
the standard
of living doubles.
So now there's
a desperate effort underway
to control the population,
to limit families
to just one child.
Chinese officials are using
fines,
economic incentives
and propaganda.
Billboards like this one
are up all over the country.
They have a long way to go.
NANFU:
Six years before I was born,
China launched
its One-Child Policy.
I grew up seeing reminders
of the policy everywhere.
They were painted on the walls, printed on playing cards...
calendars,
matches,
snack boxes,
posters.
All of them blended
into the background of life
in China.
I never thought much
about what it meant for me,
or anyone,
until I learned
that I was going to be a mom.
[HEARTBEAT]
[♪♪]
Our baby was born
seven weeks early.
I was not prepared.
Right after he was born,
the nurses took him away
from me.
The separation
and fear for his health
was traumatic.
Twelve days later,
I was finally able
to take him home
and hold him.
[IN MANDARIN]
Becoming a mother felt like
giving birth
to my memories.
A rush of images
from my early life
came back to me.
I thought of my own parents
and the name they gave me.
They chose the name Nanfu
before I was born.
Nan means "man,"
andfu means "pillar."
They hoped for a boy
who would grow up to be the pillar of the family.
When I was born a girl,
they named me Nanfu anyway,
hoping that I would
grow up strong like a man.
I remembered the plaques
the government hung
on all the front doors
in my village every year,
signifying
each family's commitment
to the Communist Party's
values.
Each plaque was decorated
with stars
indicating how well
the family performed,
including a star
for whether the family
had no more than one child.
Our family always missed
that star.
I remembered being sent
to middle school in the city
because our village
only had an elementary school.
Most of the city kids
came from one-child families.
Whenever someone found out
that I had a brother,
I felt embarrassed,
as if our family had done
something wrong
by having a second child.
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
ZAODI [IN MANDARIN]:
Mm.
Hmm.
Mm.
[♪♪]
[BABY FUSSING]
[FIRECRACKERS POPPING]
ZHIMEI [IN MANDARIN]:
[CLEARS THROAT]
WOMAN [IN MANDARIN]: Huh?
NANFU:
I moved to the U.S. six years
before my son was born.
Bringing him back to my village for the first time
showed me
how traumatic it was
just to become a parent
in China.
[CHILDREN CHATTERING
INDISTINCTLY]
Visiting the village
kindergarten
where my mom teaches,
I remembered
that we had textbooks
about the One-Child Policy
since we were kids.
ALL [SINGING IN MANDARIN]:
I used to think
that I knew everything
there was to know
about the One-Child Policy.
But now I wondered
if the thoughts I had
were really my own
or if they were simply
learned.
I asked my neighbor
to take me
to see the former head
of my village,
who was in charge
when the One-Child Policy
began.
He was one of the people
my grandpa argued with
about sterilizing my mom.
[IN MANDARIN]
[BOTH CHATTERING IN MANDARIN]
[NANFU LAUGHS]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
Oh! NANFU: Mm.
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
Ah.
NANFU:
[IN MANDARIN]
[NANFU CHUCKLES]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
[WOMEN CHATTERING IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
TUNDE [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
[IN MANDARIN]
WOMAN [IN MANDARIN]:
[CYMBALS CLANKING]
[SPEAKING IN MANDARIN]
XIANWEN [IN MANDARIN]:
[CHANTING IN MANDARIN]
[CHANTING]
NANFU:
Men like Liu Xianwen
worked all over China
to promote
the One-Child Policy.
[CYMBALS CLANKING OVER TV]
Since before
I could even speak,
I was surrounded by messages
praising the policy.
[MUSIC PLAYING OVER TV] There was TV.
ALL [CHANTING IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
Theatrical performances.
[IN MANDARIN]:
ALL [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
And even children's songs.
[SINGING IN MANDARIN]:
And just like everyone else,
I joined in the choir.
This was me performing
propaganda songs.
We all had the same makeup,
the same dresses
and the same mentality.
WOMAN [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
WOMAN:
[IN MANDARIN]
[CHATTERING IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
As I was leaving,
I asked my neighbor
who went with me
if he could take me
to meet some women
who were affected
by the policy.
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
MAN 1 [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
MAN 1:
NANFU:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
[NANFU SPEAKS IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
WOMAN 1 [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
[CHATTERING IN MANDARIN]
[MANDARIN POP MUSIC PLAYING
OVER SPEAKER]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
That night, I decided
it was best
to speak to someone I know.
So I went to see
the local midwife
who delivered all the babies
in the village,
including myself.
She was happy to see me.
She showed me photos
of my grandma,
who used to be in the same
propaganda band with her.
HUARU [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
[♪♪]
NANFU:
HUARU:
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
On the wall,
there was a long list
of infertility disorders.
Next to it were flags
people sent to thank her
for helping them
have babies.
[NANFU GASPS]
[NANFU SPEAKS IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
HUARU:
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
My village is one of many
thousands across the country,
and every village had midwives
and family planning workers.
Each year, the government
would punish or reward them
depending on how many babies
were born in their territory.
[ORCHESTRAL FANFARE PLAYING][AUDIENCE APPLAUDING]
PRESENTER [IN MANDARIN]:
[♪♪]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
She was standing
right behind Wen Jiabao,
the country's premier
at the time.
Received
like a national hero,
Jiang's story was told
again and again
by the state TV.
MAN [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
[♪♪]
[LAUGHS]
[CHUCKLES]
[♪♪]
NANFU:
"We are fighting
a population war"
was a common slogan
used by the government
during
the One-Child Policy.
China started a war
against population growth,
but it became a real war
against its own people.
[TANK GUNS FIRING]
PENG [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
Mm.
[♪♪]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[CLEARS THROAT]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[SIGHS]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
My grandpa is 83.
He lived through wars,
famines and revolutions.
My own parents
weren't much better off.
My father died
of a brain hemorrhage
when he was 33.
And his short life
was more about survival
than finding fulfillment.
[♪♪]
None of my family
questioned the policy
or how it was implemented.
The government used
music and TV
to show people
a better life
that they could imagine
themselves living,
as long as they followed
the rules.
[WOMAN SINGING
ORCHESTRAL BALLAD]
WOMAN [SINGING IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
I wish I could say something
to my mom.
Like most people in China,
she believes the policy
was necessary
for China's survival.
But I wondered
if people like her
really thought
it was worth the sacrifices
each family made.
ZHIHAO [IN MANDARIN]:
[STAMMERS]
[STAMMERS]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
[MEN SPEAKING IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
Coming back here,
I realized that I don't even
have a photo
of my grandpa and me,
as he only ever took photos
with his two grandsons.
ZHIHAO [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
When my mom was born,
her parents named her Zaodi,
which means "bring me
a younger brother soon."
She later helped
her younger brother
abandon his daughter
in the market
so he could try again
for a son.
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
I wish I could say
that my uncle
was the only one
in our family
who felt he had to abandon
a child.
[♪♪]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
Mm.
[♪♪]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
The large number
of abandoned babies
created opportunities
for human traffickers
all over China.
In my village,
we called them matchmakers,
because they took
unwanted babies
and found homes for them.
Talking with my aunt
about matchmakers
triggered a memory I had
of a national news story
from a decade ago,
where an entire family
was convicted
of selling babies
to orphanages.
At the time,
it seemed cruel and evil
that someone could sell babies
like that.
But now I wondered
if the government's version
of their crime
was true at all.
I tracked down
the ex-trafficker Yueneng Duan
in Shenzhen.
Duan spent four years
in prison,
but now works
as a security guard.
The day I was there,
he was on his break,
scavenging furniture
from a company
that was going
out of business.
[♪♪]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
The number 10,000
sounded high to me,
but I had no way
to verify it.
I asked him to show me
exactly how he did it.
[WOMAN ON P.A.
SPEAKING MANDARIN]
NANFU:
He used to take a train
almost every day
between Guangdong Province,
where he would find babies,
and Hunan Province,
where he would sell the babies
to the orphanages.
YUENENG [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
YUENENG [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
1992 was the year
that China began
its international
adoption program,
allowing foreigners
to adopt Chinese orphans.
The demand from orphanages
grew so fast
that Duan's family
had to find help.
[IN MANDARIN]
[SPEAKING MANDARIN]
YUENENG [IN MANDARIN]:
MEILIN [IN MANDARIN]:
YUENENG:
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
[BOTH SPEAKING IN MANDARIN]
[LAUGHS]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
Until my aunt told me
the story about
her abandoned daughter,
I never knew
that I had a cousin.
Now I was filled
with questions.
Where could she be?
And where are the children
Duan sold to orphanages?
One family in America
has been trying to answer
these questions for 18 years.
BRIAN:
There are entries
showing these kids
either came from
the Duan family from Wuchuan
or from, you know, outside,
uh, family planning.
And that's just--
It's astounding that,
of the hundreds of kids
at this orphanage
adopted internationally,
less than a handful of them
actually seem to have been
legitimately found.
The rest were brought
in by people.
LAN:
I know.
NANFU:
Long Lan and her husband Brian
cofounded Research China,
a paid service that tries
to connect adopted children
with their birth families
in China.
Their search started
with their own children.
LAN [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
Why adopting from China
was so popular
among international
families?
The main thing
is that the China program,
from the beginning,
was extremely predictable.
You knew practically
down to the penny
how much money you were gonna
need to bring to China.
You knew where you were
gonna be on every day.
You knew what forms
you were gonna sign.
Everything
was 100 percent orchestrated.
NANFU:
How much was the average
total cost to adopt from China?
Generally between, say,
$10,000 at the very least
to 20,000 to $25,000.
So we did research,
submitted our dossier
and adopted Meikina in 1998,
April 4th.
[BABBLES]
And it was, in every sense
of the word,
a life-changing experience.
And we said, "Boy, we need
to go on that ride again."
[♪♪]
BRIAN:
Now look at the camera.
Two, three, one.
Come on.Here. One, two...
LAN [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN ENGLISH]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN ENGLISH]
Oh, my God...
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
For most of Meikina's life,
they thought they knew exactly
how she came to them.
BRIAN:
I'd actually started researching
in China in about 2000,
and interviewed this finder.
[IN ENGLISH]
BRIAN:
And the detail
in the experience
that she painted for me
struck me
as completely legitimate.
[IN ENGLISH]
For 10 years,
I was convinced
that that story
was accurate.
Um, and then finally Lan said,
you know,
"Maybe we should go back
and I should meet this finder
and talk to her myself."
So she went back,
found the woman
I had interviewed,
and the woman, like, kind
of got a little bit nervous,
and she said, "Have you spoken
to the orphanage?
"I actually had nothing to do
with your daughter's finding.
"Our names were just put
on the paperwork
"for the adoption.
We didn't find
your daughter."
Now, when Lan called me
and told me that,
I was like,
"Wow. That is amazing."
Because now I recognized
that the orphanage
had prepped the finder
before I had even gotten there
in 2000 and said,
"Give him a good story.
Make something up.
Just make him feel good."
And that's what happens
in the majority of cases
when Western families
go to China,
and they give this same story
over and over and over again.
LAN [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN ENGLISH]
How come I can't find that one?
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
Talking with Long Lan,
I realized
I was following the path
she had already discovered.
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
She had reached out
to Duan and his family
many years before I did.
She has a copy
of all the records
from Duan's trial.
She also interviewed
Duan's mom,
who passed away
several years ago.
She was the first person
in the family
who sold babies
to orphanages.
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
[NANFU SPEAKS IN MANDARIN]Hmm.
NANFU:
Mm.
NANFU:
Mm.
[NANFU SPEAKS IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
Hmm.
And so the orphanage
will hire--
Not officially hire,
but will create
a recruiting network
of doctors, midwives,
foster families, whatever.
You know?
Anybody that can--
Can locate and bring children
into the orphanage.
When those children
come into the orphanage,
then, of course,
the orphanage then needs
to fabricate
their information,
say, "Oh, yeah, let's pick
the third middle school today."
You know, and they'll tell
the adopted family,
"Your child was found
at the third middle school."
Um, when, in fact, they were
never actually found at all.
So, what the orphanages will do
is they'll make an agreement
with their local police station
and say,
"Okay, we're going to bring
over these finding reports,
"and we need you to stamp it
and sign it,
"and we'll pay you 50 yuan
or whatever
for each one that we do."
[♪♪]
The finding ads are published
in newspapers
that nobody ever reads.
You know, basically,
they're just a photo
with some information
about the child,
their gender,
their health status,
where they
were supposedly found,
how old, their birth dates,
and so on.
And then, at the bottom
of the finding ad it says,
"The birth family has 60 days
to retrieve the child,
or the child will be submitted
for adoption."
NANFU:
Looking at the finding ads
in the newspapers,
I wondered
about each baby's story.
If they weren't orphans,
were they given to matchmakers
like my own cousin?
I found many sets of twins.
Most of them
probably were separated,
and they don't even know
that they have a twin
somewhere in the world.
LAN [IN MANDARIN]:
BRIAN:
When you take that information
from all the children
and you collate it together,
you can begin
to see patterns.
This is the location
that the orphanage
told the adoptive families
where their child was found.
And so you can see--
Orphanage gate,
civil affairs, orphanage,
civil affairs, orphanage.
It's clear that, you know,
they're making up
the information,
because they're using
the same locations
over and over
and over again.
LAN [IN MANDARIN]:
[LAN RECITING NAMES]
BRIAN:
It used to be that
family planning would come in
if you had
an over-quota child,
and they'd bash down
your house
or they'd take a pig
or, you know, do something.
Once the orphanage joined
the international
adoption program,
that changed.
And so now they saw kind
of a win-win situation going
where the family planning
would go in
and take the child
that wasn't registered,
turn it in to the orphanage,
the orphanage would reward
the family planning officials,
and then adopt
that child internationally.
NANFU:
I lived in China
until I was 26,
but I'd never heard
that government officials
were confiscating babies
during the One-Child Policy.
I was shocked
when Brian said
the story was uncovered
years ago
when I was still living
in China.
This was me back then.
Throughout my life,
I was taught to believe
the love of my country
was equal
to love of the government
and the party.
Now, when I look back
at this time in my life,
I'm amazed at my ignorance.
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
The Chinese government
exerted a lot of influence
to suppress the story.
Threatened the newspaper,
threatened the reporter.
the reporter ended up having
to leave China, you know,
because of that kind
of stuff.
NANFU:
I e-mailed the journalist,
who is in exile
in Hong Kong,
and asked
if he could meet me.
He agreed, but only if we meet in a hotel,
because he didn't want
to reveal his address.
[♪♪]
PANG [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
Pang had extensive evidence.
He and a colleague
had taken cameras
to Hunan Province in 2010.
The government had targeted
families in Longhui County,
one of the poorest places
in all of China.
[DOGS BARKING]
WOMAN [IN MANDARIN]:
MAN [IN MANDARIN]:
MAN:
ZHOU:
MAN:
MAN:
MAN:
MAN:
YANG:
MAN 1:
MAN 2:
[IN MANDARIN]
MAN:
PANG [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
Growing up, I saw signs
like this everywhere.
[♪♪]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
MAN [IN MANDARIN]:
ZENG [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
Then he showed me footage
of Zeng Shuangjie.
He told me
that Zeng had a twin sister
who was taken away
from the family.
PANG [IN MANDARIN]:
MAN [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU: In Hong Kong, Pang wrote a book
titledThe Orphans of Shao.
He used the twin girl's picture on the cover.
It couldn't be published
in China.
An English version
was published
with the help of a U.S.
nonprofit organization.
[WOMAN ON P.A.
SPEAKING MANDARIN]
[♪♪]
NANFU:
Since Pang's report
was published in 2011,
the situation of the families
in Shaoyang
is basically the same.
There has been
no accountability
for the people responsible.
[DOG BARKING]
[IN MANDARIN]
LAN: FATHER:
LAN:
FATHER:
LAN:
Ah. Oh.
[IN ENGLISH]
ZENG [IN MANDARIN]:
[♪♪]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
I told Lan the story
about my aunt
and my missing cousin.
She said
she might be able to help.
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
Ah.
[BOTH CHUCKLE]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
After meeting with my aunt,
Lan kept traveling
around China,
gathering DNA from families
to test for matches
with children abroad.
One thing that struck me
was that everyone we spoke to
said the same things
about the policy.
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
As I heard the answer
again and again,
"I had no choice",
I realized that you could ask
anyone in any part of China
about how the One-Child Policy
affected them,
and all of them would say
the same thing.
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
I was so angry,
even with my own family,
that there wasn't more
to be said or done.
There was such a shared sense
of helplessness.
It reminded me,
when every major life decision
is made for you,
for all your life,
it's hard to feel responsible
for the consequences.
[♪♪]
Long Lan and Brian started
testing the DNA samples
she brought back
from China.
They didn't find my cousin,
but they did discover a match,
a girl in the United States
who is a DNA match
to a family in China.
BRIAN:
This is the list
of all the DNA that we've got.
All of it comes
into GEDMatch Genesis database.
So that--
And that's a free database
that allows us then
to compare our DNA
with all the DNA
in the database.
I was going through,
Lan was doing some work,
I was just going through.
I go through each of the matches
to see if there was any
that were close matches,
and we got to one
of the birth families
and it matched to a girl.
And, of course, I immediately
reached out to the adoptee,
sent her an e-mail
and let her know that, you know,
if she wanted more information,
she could write us.
And then she wrote back
and said,
"Thank you
for reaching out to me.
"At this moment,
I do not want information
"regarding my birth family.
I'm not really interested
at this time."
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
[IN ENGLISH]
NANFU:
Lan told me
that it's actually very common
that adoptees
do not want to contact
their birth families.
This also included the children she located from Hunan Province
who were kidnapped
and sent to orphanages
by the government.
LAN [IN ENGLISH]:
[IN MANDARIN]
[SIGHS]
[SNIFFLES]
[IN ENGLISH]:
Okay.
Mm.
[SNIFFLES]
Um...
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
After leaving Utah,
I decided to take another trip
to China with my son.
I wanted to follow up
with the twin girl
whose sister is in America.
I brought the book written by the journalist in Hong Kong.
While there was no DNA match
for Zeng and her twin sister,
her story
had already been made public.
An American journalist
located her twin sister
in the United States.
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
ZENG:
PANG:
ZENG:
PANG:
ZENG: PANG:
ZENG:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
While the American family did not want to be interviewed,
Zeng and her twin sister connected through social media.
ZENG [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
Mm.
Mm...
NANFU:
NANFU:
Mm.
NANFU:
NANFU:
[NANFU CHUCKLES]
NANFU:
[CHUCKLES]
NANFU:
Mm.
NANFU:
[BOTH CHUCKLE]
[♪♪]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
Many years ago,
I felt embarrassed
for having a brother.
But now I feel lucky
that I had someone
to grow up with.
I want my son
to have a sibling like I did,
but I want that decision
to be my own.
I'm struck by the irony
that I left a country
where the government
forced women to abort,
and I moved
to another country
where governments
restrict abortions.
On the surface,
they seem like opposites,
but both are about
taking away women's control
of their own bodies.
The One-Child Policy lasted
for 35 years.
Now there aren't enough
young people in China
to work and care
for the elderly.
So China is introducing
a new family planning policy.
The signs painted
all over my village
have been changed.
Every trace
of the One-Child Policy
is being erased.
WOMEN [SINGING IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
But the memory
of what the policy really was
survives in the minds
of people who lived it.
If these memories
of the One-Child Policy
fade away,
the only thing left
will be propaganda.
[IN MANDARIN]
ALL:
[MUSIC RESUMES PLAYING]
[MUSIC FADES]
[♪♪]
[CHILDREN SINGING
INDISTINCTLY]
[♪♪]
[CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING]
[CHANTING IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
I was born in China in 1985,
a time
when China's population crisis
was making headlines
around the world.
There are more
than a billion Chinese.
That one big statistic,
more than anything else,
is at the heart
of that country's
huge economic problems.
MAN:
By the middle
of the next century,
if China's families have
an average of three children,
there will be starvation.
However,
with one child per family,
the standard
of living doubles.
So now there's
a desperate effort underway
to control the population,
to limit families
to just one child.
Chinese officials are using
fines,
economic incentives
and propaganda.
Billboards like this one
are up all over the country.
They have a long way to go.
NANFU:
Six years before I was born,
China launched
its One-Child Policy.
I grew up seeing reminders
of the policy everywhere.
They were painted on the walls, printed on playing cards...
calendars,
matches,
snack boxes,
posters.
All of them blended
into the background of life
in China.
I never thought much
about what it meant for me,
or anyone,
until I learned
that I was going to be a mom.
[HEARTBEAT]
[♪♪]
Our baby was born
seven weeks early.
I was not prepared.
Right after he was born,
the nurses took him away
from me.
The separation
and fear for his health
was traumatic.
Twelve days later,
I was finally able
to take him home
and hold him.
[IN MANDARIN]
Becoming a mother felt like
giving birth
to my memories.
A rush of images
from my early life
came back to me.
I thought of my own parents
and the name they gave me.
They chose the name Nanfu
before I was born.
Nan means "man,"
andfu means "pillar."
They hoped for a boy
who would grow up to be the pillar of the family.
When I was born a girl,
they named me Nanfu anyway,
hoping that I would
grow up strong like a man.
I remembered the plaques
the government hung
on all the front doors
in my village every year,
signifying
each family's commitment
to the Communist Party's
values.
Each plaque was decorated
with stars
indicating how well
the family performed,
including a star
for whether the family
had no more than one child.
Our family always missed
that star.
I remembered being sent
to middle school in the city
because our village
only had an elementary school.
Most of the city kids
came from one-child families.
Whenever someone found out
that I had a brother,
I felt embarrassed,
as if our family had done
something wrong
by having a second child.
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
ZAODI [IN MANDARIN]:
Mm.
Hmm.
Mm.
[♪♪]
[BABY FUSSING]
[FIRECRACKERS POPPING]
ZHIMEI [IN MANDARIN]:
[CLEARS THROAT]
WOMAN [IN MANDARIN]: Huh?
NANFU:
I moved to the U.S. six years
before my son was born.
Bringing him back to my village for the first time
showed me
how traumatic it was
just to become a parent
in China.
[CHILDREN CHATTERING
INDISTINCTLY]
Visiting the village
kindergarten
where my mom teaches,
I remembered
that we had textbooks
about the One-Child Policy
since we were kids.
ALL [SINGING IN MANDARIN]:
I used to think
that I knew everything
there was to know
about the One-Child Policy.
But now I wondered
if the thoughts I had
were really my own
or if they were simply
learned.
I asked my neighbor
to take me
to see the former head
of my village,
who was in charge
when the One-Child Policy
began.
He was one of the people
my grandpa argued with
about sterilizing my mom.
[IN MANDARIN]
[BOTH CHATTERING IN MANDARIN]
[NANFU LAUGHS]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
Oh! NANFU: Mm.
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
Ah.
NANFU:
[IN MANDARIN]
[NANFU CHUCKLES]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
[WOMEN CHATTERING IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
TUNDE [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
[IN MANDARIN]
WOMAN [IN MANDARIN]:
[CYMBALS CLANKING]
[SPEAKING IN MANDARIN]
XIANWEN [IN MANDARIN]:
[CHANTING IN MANDARIN]
[CHANTING]
NANFU:
Men like Liu Xianwen
worked all over China
to promote
the One-Child Policy.
[CYMBALS CLANKING OVER TV]
Since before
I could even speak,
I was surrounded by messages
praising the policy.
[MUSIC PLAYING OVER TV] There was TV.
ALL [CHANTING IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
Theatrical performances.
[IN MANDARIN]:
ALL [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
And even children's songs.
[SINGING IN MANDARIN]:
And just like everyone else,
I joined in the choir.
This was me performing
propaganda songs.
We all had the same makeup,
the same dresses
and the same mentality.
WOMAN [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
WOMAN:
[IN MANDARIN]
[CHATTERING IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
As I was leaving,
I asked my neighbor
who went with me
if he could take me
to meet some women
who were affected
by the policy.
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
MAN 1 [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
MAN 1:
NANFU:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
[NANFU SPEAKS IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
WOMAN 1 [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
[CHATTERING IN MANDARIN]
[MANDARIN POP MUSIC PLAYING
OVER SPEAKER]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
That night, I decided
it was best
to speak to someone I know.
So I went to see
the local midwife
who delivered all the babies
in the village,
including myself.
She was happy to see me.
She showed me photos
of my grandma,
who used to be in the same
propaganda band with her.
HUARU [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
[♪♪]
NANFU:
HUARU:
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
On the wall,
there was a long list
of infertility disorders.
Next to it were flags
people sent to thank her
for helping them
have babies.
[NANFU GASPS]
[NANFU SPEAKS IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
HUARU:
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
My village is one of many
thousands across the country,
and every village had midwives
and family planning workers.
Each year, the government
would punish or reward them
depending on how many babies
were born in their territory.
[ORCHESTRAL FANFARE PLAYING][AUDIENCE APPLAUDING]
PRESENTER [IN MANDARIN]:
[♪♪]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
She was standing
right behind Wen Jiabao,
the country's premier
at the time.
Received
like a national hero,
Jiang's story was told
again and again
by the state TV.
MAN [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
[♪♪]
[LAUGHS]
[CHUCKLES]
[♪♪]
NANFU:
"We are fighting
a population war"
was a common slogan
used by the government
during
the One-Child Policy.
China started a war
against population growth,
but it became a real war
against its own people.
[TANK GUNS FIRING]
PENG [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
Mm.
[♪♪]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[CLEARS THROAT]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[SIGHS]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
My grandpa is 83.
He lived through wars,
famines and revolutions.
My own parents
weren't much better off.
My father died
of a brain hemorrhage
when he was 33.
And his short life
was more about survival
than finding fulfillment.
[♪♪]
None of my family
questioned the policy
or how it was implemented.
The government used
music and TV
to show people
a better life
that they could imagine
themselves living,
as long as they followed
the rules.
[WOMAN SINGING
ORCHESTRAL BALLAD]
WOMAN [SINGING IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
I wish I could say something
to my mom.
Like most people in China,
she believes the policy
was necessary
for China's survival.
But I wondered
if people like her
really thought
it was worth the sacrifices
each family made.
ZHIHAO [IN MANDARIN]:
[STAMMERS]
[STAMMERS]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
[MEN SPEAKING IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
Coming back here,
I realized that I don't even
have a photo
of my grandpa and me,
as he only ever took photos
with his two grandsons.
ZHIHAO [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
When my mom was born,
her parents named her Zaodi,
which means "bring me
a younger brother soon."
She later helped
her younger brother
abandon his daughter
in the market
so he could try again
for a son.
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
I wish I could say
that my uncle
was the only one
in our family
who felt he had to abandon
a child.
[♪♪]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
Mm.
[♪♪]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
The large number
of abandoned babies
created opportunities
for human traffickers
all over China.
In my village,
we called them matchmakers,
because they took
unwanted babies
and found homes for them.
Talking with my aunt
about matchmakers
triggered a memory I had
of a national news story
from a decade ago,
where an entire family
was convicted
of selling babies
to orphanages.
At the time,
it seemed cruel and evil
that someone could sell babies
like that.
But now I wondered
if the government's version
of their crime
was true at all.
I tracked down
the ex-trafficker Yueneng Duan
in Shenzhen.
Duan spent four years
in prison,
but now works
as a security guard.
The day I was there,
he was on his break,
scavenging furniture
from a company
that was going
out of business.
[♪♪]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
The number 10,000
sounded high to me,
but I had no way
to verify it.
I asked him to show me
exactly how he did it.
[WOMAN ON P.A.
SPEAKING MANDARIN]
NANFU:
He used to take a train
almost every day
between Guangdong Province,
where he would find babies,
and Hunan Province,
where he would sell the babies
to the orphanages.
YUENENG [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
YUENENG [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
1992 was the year
that China began
its international
adoption program,
allowing foreigners
to adopt Chinese orphans.
The demand from orphanages
grew so fast
that Duan's family
had to find help.
[IN MANDARIN]
[SPEAKING MANDARIN]
YUENENG [IN MANDARIN]:
MEILIN [IN MANDARIN]:
YUENENG:
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
[BOTH SPEAKING IN MANDARIN]
[LAUGHS]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
Until my aunt told me
the story about
her abandoned daughter,
I never knew
that I had a cousin.
Now I was filled
with questions.
Where could she be?
And where are the children
Duan sold to orphanages?
One family in America
has been trying to answer
these questions for 18 years.
BRIAN:
There are entries
showing these kids
either came from
the Duan family from Wuchuan
or from, you know, outside,
uh, family planning.
And that's just--
It's astounding that,
of the hundreds of kids
at this orphanage
adopted internationally,
less than a handful of them
actually seem to have been
legitimately found.
The rest were brought
in by people.
LAN:
I know.
NANFU:
Long Lan and her husband Brian
cofounded Research China,
a paid service that tries
to connect adopted children
with their birth families
in China.
Their search started
with their own children.
LAN [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
Why adopting from China
was so popular
among international
families?
The main thing
is that the China program,
from the beginning,
was extremely predictable.
You knew practically
down to the penny
how much money you were gonna
need to bring to China.
You knew where you were
gonna be on every day.
You knew what forms
you were gonna sign.
Everything
was 100 percent orchestrated.
NANFU:
How much was the average
total cost to adopt from China?
Generally between, say,
$10,000 at the very least
to 20,000 to $25,000.
So we did research,
submitted our dossier
and adopted Meikina in 1998,
April 4th.
[BABBLES]
And it was, in every sense
of the word,
a life-changing experience.
And we said, "Boy, we need
to go on that ride again."
[♪♪]
BRIAN:
Now look at the camera.
Two, three, one.
Come on.Here. One, two...
LAN [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN ENGLISH]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN ENGLISH]
Oh, my God...
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
For most of Meikina's life,
they thought they knew exactly
how she came to them.
BRIAN:
I'd actually started researching
in China in about 2000,
and interviewed this finder.
[IN ENGLISH]
BRIAN:
And the detail
in the experience
that she painted for me
struck me
as completely legitimate.
[IN ENGLISH]
For 10 years,
I was convinced
that that story
was accurate.
Um, and then finally Lan said,
you know,
"Maybe we should go back
and I should meet this finder
and talk to her myself."
So she went back,
found the woman
I had interviewed,
and the woman, like, kind
of got a little bit nervous,
and she said, "Have you spoken
to the orphanage?
"I actually had nothing to do
with your daughter's finding.
"Our names were just put
on the paperwork
"for the adoption.
We didn't find
your daughter."
Now, when Lan called me
and told me that,
I was like,
"Wow. That is amazing."
Because now I recognized
that the orphanage
had prepped the finder
before I had even gotten there
in 2000 and said,
"Give him a good story.
Make something up.
Just make him feel good."
And that's what happens
in the majority of cases
when Western families
go to China,
and they give this same story
over and over and over again.
LAN [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN ENGLISH]
How come I can't find that one?
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
Talking with Long Lan,
I realized
I was following the path
she had already discovered.
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
She had reached out
to Duan and his family
many years before I did.
She has a copy
of all the records
from Duan's trial.
She also interviewed
Duan's mom,
who passed away
several years ago.
She was the first person
in the family
who sold babies
to orphanages.
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
[NANFU SPEAKS IN MANDARIN]Hmm.
NANFU:
Mm.
NANFU:
Mm.
[NANFU SPEAKS IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
Hmm.
And so the orphanage
will hire--
Not officially hire,
but will create
a recruiting network
of doctors, midwives,
foster families, whatever.
You know?
Anybody that can--
Can locate and bring children
into the orphanage.
When those children
come into the orphanage,
then, of course,
the orphanage then needs
to fabricate
their information,
say, "Oh, yeah, let's pick
the third middle school today."
You know, and they'll tell
the adopted family,
"Your child was found
at the third middle school."
Um, when, in fact, they were
never actually found at all.
So, what the orphanages will do
is they'll make an agreement
with their local police station
and say,
"Okay, we're going to bring
over these finding reports,
"and we need you to stamp it
and sign it,
"and we'll pay you 50 yuan
or whatever
for each one that we do."
[♪♪]
The finding ads are published
in newspapers
that nobody ever reads.
You know, basically,
they're just a photo
with some information
about the child,
their gender,
their health status,
where they
were supposedly found,
how old, their birth dates,
and so on.
And then, at the bottom
of the finding ad it says,
"The birth family has 60 days
to retrieve the child,
or the child will be submitted
for adoption."
NANFU:
Looking at the finding ads
in the newspapers,
I wondered
about each baby's story.
If they weren't orphans,
were they given to matchmakers
like my own cousin?
I found many sets of twins.
Most of them
probably were separated,
and they don't even know
that they have a twin
somewhere in the world.
LAN [IN MANDARIN]:
BRIAN:
When you take that information
from all the children
and you collate it together,
you can begin
to see patterns.
This is the location
that the orphanage
told the adoptive families
where their child was found.
And so you can see--
Orphanage gate,
civil affairs, orphanage,
civil affairs, orphanage.
It's clear that, you know,
they're making up
the information,
because they're using
the same locations
over and over
and over again.
LAN [IN MANDARIN]:
[LAN RECITING NAMES]
BRIAN:
It used to be that
family planning would come in
if you had
an over-quota child,
and they'd bash down
your house
or they'd take a pig
or, you know, do something.
Once the orphanage joined
the international
adoption program,
that changed.
And so now they saw kind
of a win-win situation going
where the family planning
would go in
and take the child
that wasn't registered,
turn it in to the orphanage,
the orphanage would reward
the family planning officials,
and then adopt
that child internationally.
NANFU:
I lived in China
until I was 26,
but I'd never heard
that government officials
were confiscating babies
during the One-Child Policy.
I was shocked
when Brian said
the story was uncovered
years ago
when I was still living
in China.
This was me back then.
Throughout my life,
I was taught to believe
the love of my country
was equal
to love of the government
and the party.
Now, when I look back
at this time in my life,
I'm amazed at my ignorance.
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
The Chinese government
exerted a lot of influence
to suppress the story.
Threatened the newspaper,
threatened the reporter.
the reporter ended up having
to leave China, you know,
because of that kind
of stuff.
NANFU:
I e-mailed the journalist,
who is in exile
in Hong Kong,
and asked
if he could meet me.
He agreed, but only if we meet in a hotel,
because he didn't want
to reveal his address.
[♪♪]
PANG [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
Pang had extensive evidence.
He and a colleague
had taken cameras
to Hunan Province in 2010.
The government had targeted
families in Longhui County,
one of the poorest places
in all of China.
[DOGS BARKING]
WOMAN [IN MANDARIN]:
MAN [IN MANDARIN]:
MAN:
ZHOU:
MAN:
MAN:
MAN:
MAN:
YANG:
MAN 1:
MAN 2:
[IN MANDARIN]
MAN:
PANG [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
Growing up, I saw signs
like this everywhere.
[♪♪]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
MAN [IN MANDARIN]:
ZENG [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
Then he showed me footage
of Zeng Shuangjie.
He told me
that Zeng had a twin sister
who was taken away
from the family.
PANG [IN MANDARIN]:
MAN [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU: In Hong Kong, Pang wrote a book
titledThe Orphans of Shao.
He used the twin girl's picture on the cover.
It couldn't be published
in China.
An English version
was published
with the help of a U.S.
nonprofit organization.
[WOMAN ON P.A.
SPEAKING MANDARIN]
[♪♪]
NANFU:
Since Pang's report
was published in 2011,
the situation of the families
in Shaoyang
is basically the same.
There has been
no accountability
for the people responsible.
[DOG BARKING]
[IN MANDARIN]
LAN: FATHER:
LAN:
FATHER:
LAN:
Ah. Oh.
[IN ENGLISH]
ZENG [IN MANDARIN]:
[♪♪]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
I told Lan the story
about my aunt
and my missing cousin.
She said
she might be able to help.
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
Ah.
[BOTH CHUCKLE]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
After meeting with my aunt,
Lan kept traveling
around China,
gathering DNA from families
to test for matches
with children abroad.
One thing that struck me
was that everyone we spoke to
said the same things
about the policy.
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
As I heard the answer
again and again,
"I had no choice",
I realized that you could ask
anyone in any part of China
about how the One-Child Policy
affected them,
and all of them would say
the same thing.
[IN MANDARIN]
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
I was so angry,
even with my own family,
that there wasn't more
to be said or done.
There was such a shared sense
of helplessness.
It reminded me,
when every major life decision
is made for you,
for all your life,
it's hard to feel responsible
for the consequences.
[♪♪]
Long Lan and Brian started
testing the DNA samples
she brought back
from China.
They didn't find my cousin,
but they did discover a match,
a girl in the United States
who is a DNA match
to a family in China.
BRIAN:
This is the list
of all the DNA that we've got.
All of it comes
into GEDMatch Genesis database.
So that--
And that's a free database
that allows us then
to compare our DNA
with all the DNA
in the database.
I was going through,
Lan was doing some work,
I was just going through.
I go through each of the matches
to see if there was any
that were close matches,
and we got to one
of the birth families
and it matched to a girl.
And, of course, I immediately
reached out to the adoptee,
sent her an e-mail
and let her know that, you know,
if she wanted more information,
she could write us.
And then she wrote back
and said,
"Thank you
for reaching out to me.
"At this moment,
I do not want information
"regarding my birth family.
I'm not really interested
at this time."
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
[IN ENGLISH]
NANFU:
Lan told me
that it's actually very common
that adoptees
do not want to contact
their birth families.
This also included the children she located from Hunan Province
who were kidnapped
and sent to orphanages
by the government.
LAN [IN ENGLISH]:
[IN MANDARIN]
[SIGHS]
[SNIFFLES]
[IN ENGLISH]:
Okay.
Mm.
[SNIFFLES]
Um...
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
After leaving Utah,
I decided to take another trip
to China with my son.
I wanted to follow up
with the twin girl
whose sister is in America.
I brought the book written by the journalist in Hong Kong.
While there was no DNA match
for Zeng and her twin sister,
her story
had already been made public.
An American journalist
located her twin sister
in the United States.
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
ZENG:
PANG:
ZENG:
PANG:
ZENG: PANG:
ZENG:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
While the American family did not want to be interviewed,
Zeng and her twin sister connected through social media.
ZENG [IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU [IN MANDARIN]:
[IN MANDARIN]
NANFU:
NANFU:
NANFU:
Mm.
Mm...
NANFU:
NANFU:
Mm.
NANFU:
NANFU:
[NANFU CHUCKLES]
NANFU:
[CHUCKLES]
NANFU:
Mm.
NANFU:
[BOTH CHUCKLE]
[♪♪]
NANFU [IN ENGLISH]:
Many years ago,
I felt embarrassed
for having a brother.
But now I feel lucky
that I had someone
to grow up with.
I want my son
to have a sibling like I did,
but I want that decision
to be my own.
I'm struck by the irony
that I left a country
where the government
forced women to abort,
and I moved
to another country
where governments
restrict abortions.
On the surface,
they seem like opposites,
but both are about
taking away women's control
of their own bodies.
The One-Child Policy lasted
for 35 years.
Now there aren't enough
young people in China
to work and care
for the elderly.
So China is introducing
a new family planning policy.
The signs painted
all over my village
have been changed.
Every trace
of the One-Child Policy
is being erased.
WOMEN [SINGING IN MANDARIN]:
NANFU:
But the memory
of what the policy really was
survives in the minds
of people who lived it.
If these memories
of the One-Child Policy
fade away,
the only thing left
will be propaganda.
[IN MANDARIN]
ALL:
[MUSIC RESUMES PLAYING]
[MUSIC FADES]
[♪♪]