Population Growth and Control

• According to the Learner website, "one of the most serious social and economic problems that faced China in the '60s and '70s was population growth. ... By 1963, the average number of children born to a Chinese woman was 7.5." This overwhelming rise in the population prompted the Chinese government to put in to place the "One Child" policy in 1979, restricting all Chinese families to only one child.
  
  

Authoritarian Parenting

• Authoritarian parenting is characterized by children who are submissive to their parents without question and trust their parents to lead them in the right direction. Authoritarian parenting does not promote "verbally and emotionally expressive persons," and deems such behavior as "socially immature and lacking in self-control," according to a study conducted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. However, the Chinese do not see this style of parenting as restrictive; rather, they view authoritarian parenting as a way of showing concern and involvement.
  
  

Psychological Effects

• There is debate over the psychological effects of authoritarian parenting. With infants, the Chinese parenting style could be considered more attachment parenting than authoritarian; however, once the child has grown into his toddler years, parents often begin to use shame and guilt as a means of teaching him which behaviors are inappropriate. This has been thought to cause psychological problems later in the child's life. A study conducted by the University of Illinois compared Chinese and American parenting practices, and found that "parents' psychological control--the use of emotional manipulation such as withdrawing love, inducing guilt or shaming children for not behaving in accordance with the parents' wishes--has similar negative effects on children in China and the U.S."
  
  

Emphasis on Education

• A majority of parents in China aim to raise intelligent and well-rounded children who will excel in life. Researcher Dr. Gan Wang notes that many of the more traditional Chinese parents place extremely strong emphasis on education, to the point of teaching their children "to recite dozens of Chinese classic poems at the age of 2, to recognize over a thousand Chinese characters and start to read at the age of 3, and play piano at the age of 4." Even the younger parents who consider themselves to be more "modern" struggle with wanting their children to succeed in their education, while not wanting to feel as though they are harming them psychologically by putting so much pressure on them.
  
  

One Shot

• Wang makes the point that "the single-child policy allows parents no room for failure." This is significant to the Chinese style of parenting because parents are often motivated by the fact that they have just one chance to produce a highly educated, well-rounded child who is fully functional in society. This is worrisome for the more "modern" parents because they fear that if they push too hard or if they are not emotionally involved with their child, he will fail. On the other hand, they fear that if they don't push hard enough, their child will still suffer the same fate.