Only Child

One-Child Generation is a realistic trilogy set against the backdrop of social changes in China since the launch of reform and opening up. It follows the lives and fortunes of China’s first generation of only children, and is based on the author’s own life experiences. The story begins in 1978, in an ordinary family in a small county town. When the protagonist is young, all his family’s love is devoted to him. As he grows up, however, the burdens of his parents, children, career, and family gradually fall on his shoulders. By middle age, he is facing the typical 4-2-1 family structure: elderly parents need care, his child needs to grow up, his career cannot stop, and his family still needs income. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day. So he draws on more than thirty years of experience in IT to research monitoring for the elderly and family caregiving. But he gradually realizes this is not just one family’s problem: it is the challenge of elder care and long-term support faced by an entire generation of only children. As population aging accelerates, he comes to understand that this is now a problem society as a whole must confront. He shifts his focus from solving his own family’s predicament to developing a social elder-care and long-term support system. The first book, One-Child Generation: Real Life, confronts the problem and brings it to light. The second, One-Child Generation: Parallel Lives, reexamines the choices and ways forward. The third, One-Child Generation: The Future, returns to reality and carries this exploration into artificial intelligence, robotics, and life sciences, ultimately looking toward the future of elder care, long-term support, and life assistance. The novel begins with the regret of one mother and one family, then turns toward solving the elder-care and support challenges faced by an entire generation and an aging society. Finally, it looks further ahead, exploring the future of elder care, long-term support, and life assistance for humanity.