The Only Child
This rural novella inherits Lu Xun’s realistic, unadorned style of writing. Its story follows Lin Xiaoshan, an only child who has reached middle age. Thanks to his parents devoting all their resources to supporting him, he was able to leave the countryside, complete his education, and rise to a higher social class. But now that he is middle-aged, he must shoulder the burden of caring for two ailing elders on his own, caught day after day between work and caregiving.
The story contrasts the Lin family’s circumstances with those of his uncle’s large family with many children. It visits villagers and grassroots workers who lived through the family-planning era, and takes a nuanced look back at the policy’s benefits and drawbacks. It examines the one-sided belief that “having fewer children can break the cycle of privilege being passed down,” and points out that the number of children cannot constrain social mobility. Effective oversight and fair selection mechanisms are what enable ordinary people to rise.
The novel moves beyond black-and-white judgments. It recognizes the policy’s historical value in stabilizing the population during an era of scarce resources and helping the country take off, while also confronting the heavy burden of elder care faced by only children and the scars left by the heavy-handed enforcement of the policy by some grassroots officials in its early years. It also documents the ongoing improvement of the elder-care system and explores the gains, losses, and reconciliation of a generation shaped by the choices of its era.
