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'One Child Nation' Documentary Explores The Dark Side Of Chinese Policy

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Filmmaker Nanfu Wang grew up in rural China under the country's one-child policy. And as a kid, she remembers seeing propaganda promoting the policy everywhere.

NANFU WANG: At some point, it just became a normal part of life, just like the air, the water, the tree. And you just stop paying attention, stop questioning because it has always been there.

CHANG: There were propaganda matchboxes, lunchboxes, murals and songs on TV.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Singing in Chinese).

WANG: Growing up, I remember seeing cartoons that whoever have more than one child is portrayed as almost criminals or backwards or uneducated. So anyone who has a sibling, which I did, I grew up with a sense of shame.

CHANG: You see, since Wang's family was in a less populated, rural area, they were allowed to have a second child, as long as they waited five years after the first and paid a hefty fine. Her parents had wanted a son so much that when she was born, they wouldn't let go of that dream. It's even in her name, Nanfu.

WANG: Nan means male, and fu means pillar, like the pillar of the house. So before I was born, my parents had hoped that they would have a boy. And the day I was born, turned out I was a girl. So they said, oh, we'll just give this name to her anyway and hoping that she would grow up to be as strong as a man. And I often have this conversation like, look, Dad. I am as strong as a man. I am stronger than men now.

CHANG: Now, Nanfu Wang is out with a new documentary called "One Child Nation." In it, she takes an unflinching look at the ripple effects of China's one-child policy - how it tore families apart, how it forced abortions and sterilizations and how it fed the trafficking of unwanted baby girls.

Wang now lives in the U.S., and she has a son. So I asked her what made her want to examine all of this after becoming a mother herself.

WANG: It was then I started having questions and asking my mom what it was like for you when you were pregnant. And the stories that she told me and my family members told me made me realize how little I knew about the one-child policy and how much of my knowledge were taught by the government. I had so many questions I wanted to explore, and I also wanted people who are like me could have a chance of learning what truly happened under the one-child policy.

CHANG: I mean, what's really striking about your documentary is that it comes from this very personal place. Like, you interview your own family members about some very painful moments. For example, your uncle, he talks about abandoning his baby girl so he could try for a son. And this baby girl dies because no one picked her up after several days. I was just wondering the whole time I was watching, what did that take for you to coax your close family members to open up about such painful decisions they made?

WANG: It was really challenging to approach my family and request an interview. It was more difficult than asking a stranger because I knew my uncle. And there were so many times I mustered my courage and tried to ask him, hey, uncle, can I talk to you about this. But then I knew that he had not talked about it for decades. And so several times I almost brought it up, and I couldn't.

And eventually when I finally did, it was the first time that we had a parent-to-parent conversation. As a mom myself, I couldn't imagine any parent would abandon, give away and see the child die, and how could you do it? And he told me that his mom, my grandma, said it's either her or me. If you keep the infant daughter, then I'll die. And I question myself all the time if I were in his position, what would I do? And I don't have the confidence to say, oh, exactly, I would resist, I would not do the same thing that they did. And that's scary.

CHANG: You know, there's this moment when you're interviewing your own mother on camera, and she is talking about how the village tried to force her to be sterilized, but your grandfather intervened. And your mother, even now, still defends the one-child policy. She said people would starve otherwise. Can you understand at some level where your mother and others like her are coming from when they're still supporting the policy? Does that make any sense to you?

WANG: At first, it didn't make any sense, and I was very, very surprised. And even until today, my mom had seen the finished film, and she still believed that the policy was necessary. And looking back, I just understood how powerful the propaganda was.

The narrative about the one-child policy, the dominant one is it contributed to the economy. Otherwise, the entire China would starve to death. And people buy into that narrative, even though for people who understood Chinese history, they know that the starvation was caused by the Great Leap Forward, which is a manmade disaster.

CHANG: Right, under Chairman Mao Zedong.

WANG: Yeah.

CHANG: I mean, what was maybe the most surprising thing about this film is how honest people were on camera when talking about the darker aspects of carrying out this policy. Like, there's this scene where you're speaking to a village elder who's remembering forcing women to undergo sterilizations, and he's expressing remorse.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ONE CHILD NATION")

UNIDENTIFIED VILLAGE ELDER: (Speaking Chinese).

CHANG: But then the tone suddenly flips, and you can hear some woman in the background tell you, hey, don't make any trouble for him.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ONE CHILD NATION")

UNIDENTIFIED VILLAGE ELDER: (Speaking Chinese).

CHANG: Can you talk about what people like this village elder and others were risking to go on camera with you like that?

WANG: I was surprised by how open they were, too, but then I realized the reason that they were open was because one, I grew up from there. Everybody knows me. And more importantly, I asked them, I wanted to know what you witnessed or what you experienced. I wanted to know the history. I wasn't asking them to criticize the policy. And when you look at the film, almost everyone was positive about the policy, even though that they suffered really painful consequences.

CHANG: Right.

WANG: I think that was the reason why they felt comfortable and open to speak frankly of what they believe.

CHANG: What kind of impact do you expect a documentary like this to have? I mean, do you think the Chinese Communist Party is a party that can be persuaded to admit past mistakes?

WANG: I think the first step of any change comes from the people who live in China. And that's why I think the most important impact I hope that documentaries would have is to change people's perception because personally, I experienced how I have learned so much and unlearned so much about what I was taught growing up about China. And a lot of people that I met told me, for example, they've never heard of the Tiananmen Square protest until the day that they left China. And I hope my documentaries could serve that purpose, to make Chinese know the truth of what happened.

CHANG: Nanfu Wang's documentary is called "One Child Nation." Thank you very, very much for joining us today.

WANG: Thank you for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF MA?ANA SONG, "FAST DAYS")