Chapter 8 Losing an Only Child
Parental Grief among China’s Shidu Parents
In: Chinese Families Upside Down: Intergenerational Dynamics and Neo-Familism in the Early 21st Century
Author:
Lihong Shi
Lihong Shi
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Abstract
The chapter explores parental grief among China’s shidu parents, or those who lost their only child born under the previous one-child policy. The chapter argues that in their pursuits of shared life goals with their child, Chinese parents identify themselves by their child’s successes or failures. The death of an only child can thus lead to a self-imposed identity of failed parenthood, and even failed personhood, among shidu parents. The chapter also discusses how shidu parents identify new shared goals and experiences with their child, without the participation of their child, in the process of healing and reconstruction of personhood.