China’s Invisible Children : Belonging and Recognition Under the One-Child Policy and Beyond

This book is the first scholarly account by a mainland Chinese scholar on China’s “invisible children,” the heihaizi, born illegally and intentionally concealed from family, community, and government under the one-child policy (1979–2016).

This book is the first scholarly account by a mainland Chinese scholar on China’s “invisible children,” the heihaizi, born illegally and intentionally concealed from family, community, and government under the one-child policy (1979–2016). Drawing on a qualitative analysis of 20 in-depth interviews with now-adult heihaizi, it reveals that personal experiences of the one-child policy and illegal “out-of-plan” births have had lasting emotional, psychological, and social consequences.  Shuttled between foster and biological families and often maltreated by parents and siblings, they remained silenced in public discourse even during the two-child policy era. Written by a former “invisible child,” this book weaves a complex theoretical framework of reproductive politics, citizenship rights, structural violence, and lasting social stigma to show how China’s invisible children were systematically rendered “less.” It offers a first-hand insider’s understanding of the production of the “invisible” label during Communist China’s modernisation and reconsiders the ethics and strategies of silencing this generation, who now face the recently introduced three-child policy as they reach their own reproductive years. This is a crucial and overdue contribution for scholars, students, and activists interested in family sociology, childhood studies, China studies, and citizenship studies.