The epilogue addresses the question of what can be ascertained from studying sex and reproduction in the longue durée. As demonstrated by the enduring reliance on abortion as birth control, family planning remains deeply gendered with women shouldering much of this burden. The persistence of eugenic ideas and the state’s intrusive but uneven policing of sexuality have been features of Chinese history since the early twentieth century. Despite ongoing changes in fertility policies, attitudes toward contraception and perceptions of what constitutes the ideal family remain diverse.

Chapter 6 traces the One Child Policy’s lifespan from its introduction in 1979 until its replacement with the Two Child Policy in 2015. I show that the extent to which the One Child Policy was actually enforced and the ways in which it was received differed significantly in Shanghai, Tianjin, and Luoyang. For some couples, particularly those in more economically developed cities like Shanghai and Tianjin, the policy simply affirmed personal convictions that smaller families are more economical and allow children to have better educational opportunities. In smaller cities like Luoyang, however, policy violations were more common as family size – as well as the existence of a male heir – remained more important than the opportunities allocated to those children. This chapter also interrogates the renewed interest in eugenics among parents wishing to “optimize” the qualities of their one and only child, as well as the limited scale and scope of sex education, a trend that exacerbated the reliance on abortion as premarital birth control.

This chapter introduces the challenge of political control that faces the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in rural China. Local CCP officials face a governance dilemma. They must control protest and implement unpopular policies such as land expropriation and relocation, or family planning quotas. Yet, as an original experiment shows, CCP cadres are seen as less trustworthy than the leaders of local community groups like lineages or neighborhood associations. The remainder of the book illustrates the resourceful ways that party cadres use these social ties to their advantage.