Under the Shadow of the Collective Good

Abstract

Before the government instituted birth control policies, did Chinese families deliberately control birth and fertility? Some scholars believe that natural fertility was indeed a fact in Chinese population history; others argue that the Chinese controlled their fertility by such positive checks as late fertility onset, early stopping of reproduction, and long intervals between births. This article joins the debate by providing ethnographic data collected in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang, in 2002. The ethnographic case studies show that deliberate fertility limitation did exist in both rural and urban communities in Xiaoshan. In addition, the article challenges the assumption that Chinese fertility was shaped by collective control rather than individual interests. On the contrary, it demonstrates that the agency of individuals, particularly of women, was often the driving force in family reproduction.