The Fertility Views Of Contemporary Chinese Farmers And Its Political Consequences

Fertility is an old topic. It has been a focal point in the study of anthropology and sociology. In seventy’s, China started to implement "one-child policy", which is acclaimed to be the most stringent measures ever to control population. As a result, the population has been effectively controlled. However, the implementation of the policy also caused a series of social problems, leading to a research upsurge of fertility issues among scholars. This paper mainly discusses Chinese farmers’ views on fertility. It refers to people’s attitude and tendency on fertility problems. To be more specific, it is one’s perceptions and attitudes towards fertility purpose, quantity, gender perference, time and quality.Taking the fertility view as the core, this paper mainly studies the current situation of farmers’ fertility views, factors that influences the formation of the views as well as the political consequences behind those fertility views. In order to understand the current status of farmers’ fertility views, this paper revolves around five aspects:purpose, quantity, gender preference, time, and quality, on the basis of field investigation. And under the traditional and modern binary division, the author thinks that the current farmers’ fertility views haven’t gotten rid of the traditional concept completedly. Instead, it exists in a mixed transitional state from the tradition to the modern.On this basis, I discusses the factors that influence the formation of the fertility veiws. On the surface, we regard that the changing attitude is the result of family planning policy. Some scholars think that the changing attitude is due to China’s rapid economic development. Other researchers try to explain this from the angle of traditonal culture. I will explore the formation of fertility views from three aspects:economic factors, national background and cultural traditons. Through such exploration, I find that these factors interweave together rather than funtion seperately, affecting farmers’ choices on fertility. At last, the paper discusses the political consequences under this mixed transitional state. The political consequence is expanded by changes in family structure and power structure. Changes in household power can exert significant influences on the social and political power. In addition, family conflict and social conflicts are easier to intensify under this hybrid fertility view, putting forward new requirements for our work.