The Danger of Single Country Case Studies

“Urban daughters have benefited from the demographic pattern produced by China's one-child policy. In the system of patrilineal kinship that has long characterized most of Chinese society, parents had little incentive to invest in their daughters.

Singleton daughters, however, enjoy unprecedented parental support because they do not have to compete with brothers for parental investment.

Low fertility enabled mothers to get paid work and, thus, gain the ability to demonstrate their filiality by providing their own parents with financial support” (Fong 2002)

Is this true?

‘As their only child, I’m precious, my parents love me too much,’ says Bonnie, who was born in Beijing in 1990, 11 years after China implemented its one-child policy. Photograph: Bonnie