國家地理:China’s Lost Girls 被拋棄的女孩[3]
"My real biological mother left me in a basket with me and my sister saying that we were twins and she waited to make sure that we were safe and then my mom right now Betsy, she came to get me in China to adopt me and she took me back to America as, as me as her daughter."
How could a mother give away her baby girl? The answer isn't so simple. We drive to the countryside where most abandoned girls are believed to come from. The majority of abandoned girls in China come from the countryside and right now we are in the Guang Dong province and this is where you really see the imbalance between boys and girls. Here it's among the highest in the country.
Boys, a lot of boys! No girlfriends?
I just asked them in their school if there are more boys or girls, and they said, "of course boys". To learn more, we speak with Wu Shuichang, a village leader.
"In the countryside for work do you think families prefer boys or girls?"
"Of course, it's better to have a boy."
I ask him how many children couples are allowed to have today.
"One. Now we can have only one."
But what happens if couples have more?
"Have two or three? No. They would pay a fine. If they had more, they would pay a fine. That's the way it is. The state will only allow us to have one."
"Why do you think people prefer to have sons?"
"A boy will stay in his own place and work. A girl will marry and leave. It's like that, a boy will always stay here."
It's hard to get women to talk openly about the pressure they're under to have sons. But in another village we find Ya Qing who was fined thousands of dollars when she chose to keep her second child, a daughter.
"This is Mrs. Ya and she owns a cell phone shop in the countryside. And this is her older son in the red. And her younger daughter whom she paid for. So Mrs. Ya lives here with her husband and two kids."
"Around here is feudalistic thinking. Everyone wants to have a son. If your family doesn't have a son, people will look down on you. It's like this because people want to have a son to carry on the family name."
When Ya Qing was pregnant her husband warned that he'd send her away if she didn't give him a son.
"God! How did it feel when your husband told you that if you didn't have a boy, he'd send you back home?"
"I was very angry at the time. Why is a boy so important? A girl is a person..."
How could a mother give away her baby girl? The answer isn't so simple. We drive to the countryside where most abandoned girls are believed to come from. The majority of abandoned girls in China come from the countryside and right now we are in the Guang Dong province and this is where you really see the imbalance between boys and girls. Here it's among the highest in the country.
Boys, a lot of boys! No girlfriends?
I just asked them in their school if there are more boys or girls, and they said, "of course boys". To learn more, we speak with Wu Shuichang, a village leader.
"In the countryside for work do you think families prefer boys or girls?"
"Of course, it's better to have a boy."
I ask him how many children couples are allowed to have today.
"One. Now we can have only one."
But what happens if couples have more?
"Have two or three? No. They would pay a fine. If they had more, they would pay a fine. That's the way it is. The state will only allow us to have one."
"Why do you think people prefer to have sons?"
"A boy will stay in his own place and work. A girl will marry and leave. It's like that, a boy will always stay here."
It's hard to get women to talk openly about the pressure they're under to have sons. But in another village we find Ya Qing who was fined thousands of dollars when she chose to keep her second child, a daughter.
"This is Mrs. Ya and she owns a cell phone shop in the countryside. And this is her older son in the red. And her younger daughter whom she paid for. So Mrs. Ya lives here with her husband and two kids."
"Around here is feudalistic thinking. Everyone wants to have a son. If your family doesn't have a son, people will look down on you. It's like this because people want to have a son to carry on the family name."
When Ya Qing was pregnant her husband warned that he'd send her away if she didn't give him a son.
"God! How did it feel when your husband told you that if you didn't have a boy, he'd send you back home?"
"I was very angry at the time. Why is a boy so important? A girl is a person..."
