Mothers
Chinese mothers want to keep their babies, but the State does not. In the northern Chinese village Ma, almost all of its women of child-bearing age are either sterilised or made to wear a birth contro…
Mothers
Chinese mothers want to keep their babies, but the State does not. In the northern Chinese village Ma, almost all of its women of child-bearing age are either sterilised or made to wear a birth control ring after having their first child. The one-child policy put into place over 30 years ago has meant a series of legal repercussions, including penalties for extra children and what can only be described as "birth control policing". Filmmaker Xu Huijing returns to his village to tailgate the government officials whose current job is playing cat-and-mouse with a woman who refuses to go through the sterilisation surgery. As Rong Rong is forced into hiding, we get a glimpse of the bureaucracy and statistics that strip away women's rights to bear children. Absurd and touching at the same time, the film sheds light on a rural China forgotten by the larger world while revealing the real and lasting impact of state-enforced family planning. —Anonymous Mothers is a gripping cinema verite documentary that shows how China's one-child policy plays out in the daily lives of women in a northern Chinese village. There are not a lot of job prospects in Ma, a community of 2,000 in Shanxi Province. Factories have closed, young people are leaving, and declining numbers are more of a problem than over-population. Still, town officials must strictly enforce the one-child policy. In the case of Ma, this means meeting an annual quota for the sterilization of women who have had more than one child. —Anonymous ZHANG Qing-mei is a birth control chief in a small village. When she's off work, she also serves as a psychic in a temple that worships the 'Goddess of Child-giving.' This year, the supervising township office commands that sterilization cases be doubled, though not many villagers want it at all. Some desperate officers are determined to send the reluctant mothers to operation rooms. Rong-rong, the elementary school teacher becomes a main target. —Anonymous
Mothers
Documentary,Drama,Family
Film Details
Chinese mothers want to keep their babies, but the State does not. In the northern Chinese village Ma, almost all of its women of child-bearing age are either sterilised or made to wear a birth control ring after having their first child. The one-child policy put into place over 30 years ago has meant a series of legal repercussions, including penalties for extra children and what can only be described as "birth control policing".
Filmmaker Xu Huijing returns to his village to tailgate the government officials whose current job is playing cat-and-mouse with a woman who refuses to go through the sterilisation surgery. As Rong Rong is forced into hiding, we get a glimpse of the bureaucracy and statistics that strip away women's rights to bear children. Absurd and touching at the same time, the film sheds light on a rural China forgotten by the larger world while revealing the real and lasting impact of state-enforced family planning.
—Anonymous Mothers is a gripping cinema verite documentary that shows how China's one-child policy plays out in the daily lives of women in a northern Chinese village. There are not a lot of job prospects in Ma, a community of 2,000 in Shanxi Province. Factories have closed, young people are leaving, and declining numbers are more of a problem than over-population.
Still, town officials must strictly enforce the one-child policy. In the case of Ma, this means meeting an annual quota for the sterilization of women who have had more than one child. —Anonymous ZHANG Qing-mei is a birth control chief in a small village.
When she's off work, she also serves as a psychic in a temple that worships the 'Goddess of Child-giving.' This year, the supervising township office commands that sterilization cases be doubled, though not many villagers want it at all. Some desperate officers are determined to send the reluctant mothers to operation rooms. Rong-rong, the elementary school teacher becomes a main target.
—Anonymous.