Documentary: “China’s Lost Girls”

“China’s Lost Girls” is a great 45-minute documentary by National Geographic that explores in detail socioeconomic and sociopolitical issues, its main focus though is on gender disparity in modern China and treatment of females as second class citizens as observed in our sessions, and through the short stories presented in class. It talks thoroughly about their population boom in the 50’s and 60’s as well as the one-child policy implemented to remedy overpopulation and its counterproductive consequences on society.


The documentary starts by showing the entire ordeal Americans go through in order to adopt one of these baby-girls who have been abandoned in parks, markets, and different public spaces as a result of one-child policy. Since up until last year families could only procreate one child; baby-boys were preferred over girls, especially in small villages, culturally the men are the ones who always stay home and take care of their old parents. Due to these governmental measures and the eagerness of Chinese families to have a boy, every year hundreds of girls were either abandoned, hidden of killed living China with a great problem; a visible disparity between their male to female population. This gap between genders has started to increase violence against women. There have been reported cases of rape and kidnaping across the country and the worst is yet to happen according to government officials.


I recommend this documentary for all teachers; it’s a great tool for your class if you’re explaining overpopulation in China and even if you want to talk about Chairman Mao. You can show it all, it’s appropriate for high school students.

Here is a link to it: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/chinas_lost_girls
edited by iverdin on 1/18/2016