- China's Forgotten Daughters tells an intimate story of one woman's journey that questions traditional notions of family and identity, revealing the wounds that tear at the heart of Chinese society in the aftermath of the one-child policy.
- China's one-child policy has taken a toll on thousands of households and millions of individuals since its implementation in 1979. Amplified by gender bias and poverty, penalties imposed by the policy were reason enough for families to give up their daughters in hope of having sons, leaving thousands of baby girls without homes. Now, these abandoned daughters are searching for their long-lost parents, over decades and across provinces. CHINA'S FORGOTTEN DAUGHTERS tells the story of one lost daughter's impassioned search for her birth family, and the human cost of the one-child policy that has lasted for generations.
- "My Family, Where Are You?" "Searching For Birth Parents"
The placards are everywhere, dozens of them plastered in shop windows and clutched in the desperate hands of women who were abandoned decades ago by their parents.
Cai Fengxia is one of these women. She has come to Jiangyin city in Jiangsu province, 600 kilometers away from her hometown, in search of her long-lost birth family. They abandoned her, for her gender, or for lack of money, or simply because they had to - because she was born the year China's one-child policy was introduced.
She and her husband walk around the city, stopping now and then to ask the passerby if they know of any girls who were abandoned in the area. No one is interested in Cai Fengxia's story, not when it brings back difficult memories of the old days. Not when in that city, in 1979 alone, more than 400 children were lost in the same way.
It's a few days later, at an event organized by a man named Li Yongguo - the founder of an NGO that connects abandoned children with their birth families. It's the largest family-finding event in China in 2016, and it's Cai Fengxia's last hope. After 12 years of searching, she is tired. There are so many questions she wants to ask - Why did you abandon me? When is my birthday? Do I resemble mom or dad? - but she may never get answers.
But then the news comes - after submitting her DNA sample into the NGO's gene pool, they find a match. Cai Fengxia is reunited with her birth family after more than 30 years of separation.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
![Vincent Du, Ka Ue So, and Meng Han in China's Forgotten Daughters (2018)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BODVjOGJhN2UtZjhkYS00NDQ1LWJhNzctNzFjZDQ0ODIwMTlkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTcyOTk3ODY@._V1_QL75_UY133_CR2,0,90,133_.jpg)
Top Gap
By what name was China's Forgotten Daughters (2018) officially released in Canada in English?
Answer