The Crisis in My Family

I was supposed to die when I was still in my mother’s womb. Because of the one-child

policy, many babies got killed before they were born. In 1980, China began the One-Child

Policy. It means that each parent could not have more than one child.  Otherwise, the

parents must pay an expensive fine or have an abortion. After that, the government forced

women to be sterilized. China set this policy because the population in China was

increasing too much after 1980. My family and I were affected by the One Child Policy

because I have one older sister and a younger brother.


I almost got killed when I was still in my mother's womb. The government had Family

Planning Officers to check each family. Family planning officer usually came at night without

any warning to make sure each family only had one child. One day they came to check

around my house and asked my grandparents some questions. My mother noticed that the

family planning officers were coming, so she already hid on the hill before they came.  A

pregnant woman was living next to us, but she was not as lucky as my mother. The family

planning officers noticed her, so they gave induced abortion to her because she already

had a two year old daughter.


In addition, my sister and I had to stay at home most of the time after I was born. If the

Family Planning Officer found out before the baby was born, the mother had to have an

abortion. However, after the baby is born, the family had to pay the fine. After I was born, my

family took me to registered permanent residence. Then the Family Planning Office found

out about me. My family was not rich, so we didn’t have enough money to pay the fine. They

took a lot of our furniture because we didn’t pay the fine. When I was one year old, my

mother was pregnant again. She didn’t go out because the Family Planning Officers were

still catching pregnant women on the street, and were taking them to home to check how

many children they had. Sometimes, they took their children because of the fine. Those

things made my mother so afraid to go out. One day, I was sick,  so my grandparents

bought some medicine from the store instead of taking me to the doctor. My family didn’t let

me out of the house easily.



Finally,When I was two years old, my brother was already born and my parents

separated my brother and me to the two different cities. They sent me to my aunt’s house

and they didn’t let other people know that I was their daughter. They did the same thing to

my brother in my other aunt’s city. They wanted to pretend we are not their kids in front of

strangers. Finally, my parents moved to another city which was far away from my

hometown. My brother and I were reunited in that city, but even though my mother had to

move to the United States because there was no one-child policy in the United States. After

my mother stayed in United States many years. My sibling and I went to the United States

with my father.


Finally, the One-Child Policy ended in 2015, and many people were happy because

they didn’t need to worry about losing their babies anymore.  The One-Child Policy was a

bad idea because it made many babies not have the chance to see this world. I was really

lucky that I survived the one-child policy war. When my parents told me about that

experience, I felt so sad about what the family planning officers did to the babies. I was not

angry that my parents left me and pretended that I was not their daughter when I was little

because I know that was the way they protected me during the one-child policy war, and I

am grateful to them.