China's Ghost Children

Chinese ghost child (noun): a child that is the product of the One-Child Policy and has no official documentation of being born. They do not exist in the eyes of the government, are hidden away and have no future for an education, health care or a job. They are ghosts.

In 2010, it was estimated that 13 million people had not been properly registered. China's ghost children are second and third-born children. With the One-Child Policy still implemented until 2015, it was illegal to have a second, let alone third child. There was a whole generation that was hidden and only recently with the Two-Child Policy (more in upcoming blog post!!) they are coming forward.

For a nice life, Chinese citizens are to obtain a household-registration document called a hukou. It is a document that is used to monitor the actions of Chinese citizens and is used in Russia and imperial China. When obtaining a hukou, you have access to health care, education, job opportunities, a passport, a place to live, board a bus or train and open a bank account. Without it, you have no freedom. For wealthier families, they can pay a fine to the Chinese government that grants them the ability to have more children. For those with modest or lower income, the fine is almost impossible to pay.

That is what Ms. Lu is fighting. In 2012, her fine was 333, 466 yuan (approximately, $67,500). Prior to losing her job, she earned 2,000 yuan (approx $400) per month. To break it down, it would take her 166 months or 14 years to pay the fine for her son, Little Jie, to be deemed as a person in China.

Ms. Lu was fired because she refused to move to a new location because she knew that a school in that area wouldn't have a sympathetic administrator and Little Jie wouldn't be able to attend elementary school. Regardless of finding a sympathetic administrator, Little Jie wouldn't be able to write the standardized exam to move onto middle school because he is not registered. Ms. Lu even tried selling her kidney to pay for the hukou, but was told she was too old at the age of 42. The thought of robbing a bank even crossed her mind, but she thought. "'But I don't have those kinds of skills.'"

Little Jie can sense that this is causing much stress onto his mother. When he heard about bird flu he stopped eating chicken because he was afraid if he got sick the hospital wouldn't help him without being properly registered. He tells his mother that he doesn't want a cake or presents for his birthday and only asks for food if it's on sale so they can save money to pay for the hukou.

Under the government's eyes, Little Jie is Ms. Ju's third child. Ms. Ju was previously married and had a daughter. They divorced and the father got custody of the child. She fell in love again and became pregnant. She felt that this child could help her with the loss of her daughter, but did not think of the One-Child Policy. After Little Jie was born, she had to show a marriage certificate, but she did not have one. Later the government legally married Ms. Ju and Little Jie's father who had lost custody of his child from a previous marriage. Therefore, the government saw Little Jie as the third child.

She is so distraught with the thought that she has ruined Little Jie's life that she said, "'Find me some family to adopt him, so he can go to school... Otherwise, I'm going to destroy him.'"

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It is interesting to hear those words as a Chinese adoptee. In a way, it kind of fills a bit of the unknown that my birth parents just didn't want to ruin my life with their current situation and had to abandon me. That it wasn't out of hatred or in a vacuous manner, but in a manner of ultimate love of having to give up your child because you know that they would never be fully happy in the situation. Doing the best thing for the child. Ms. Ju shows selfless and desperate acts such as trying to sell a kidney at 42 and thinking of robbing a bank just so her son can go to school. While being a voice for the Chinese adoption community, I hope through this post I was able to be a voice for the affected ghost children of China by sharing Ms. Ju and Little Jie's story.

*Information from Nathan VanderKlippe's journal article, The ghost children: In the wake of China's one-child policy, a generation is lost for the Globe and Mail, March 13, 2015. Click here for article.

*Information from Nathan VanderKlippe's journal article, End of China's one-child policy is slowly giving 'ghost children' identities, April 3, 2016. Click here for article.