"The world's largest experiment in social engineering -- how its effects will shape China for decades to come, and what that means for the rest of the world. When the Chinese Communist Party leadership enacted the one-child policy in 1980, they hoped curbing birthrates would help lift China's poorest and increase the country's global stature. But at what cost? Now, as China ends the policy after more than three decades, it has a population grown too old and too male, with a vastly diminished supply of young workers. Mei Fong has spent years documenting the policy's repercussions on every sector of Chinese society. She explores its human impact, traveling across China to meet the people who live with its consequences. Their stories reveal a dystopian reality: unauthorized second children not recognized by the state, only children supporting aging parents and grandparents on their own, villages teeming with ineligible bachelors, and an ungoverned adoption market stretching across the globe. Whether China's "Little Emperor" cohort will make for an entitled or risk-averse generation; how China will manage to support itself when one in every four people is over sixty-five years old; and how much the one-child policy may end up hindering China's growth. One Child offers a nuanced and candid report from the extremes of family planning.

After the quake -- And the clock struck 8.8.08 -- Cassandra and the rocketmen -- The population police -- Little emperors, grown up -- Welcome to the dollhouse -- Better to struggle to live than die a good death -- The red thread is broken -- Babies beyond borders.