New Year’s test for China’s one-child generation

This week begins China’s annual mass pilgrimage, as millions return to their home towns for the Chinese New Year. But for those who grew up as only children, the ritual can also mean a modern-day test for one of China’s most enduring family traditions.

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April 5, 2011

Women push babies in strollers through a Beijing park during a public holiday for the Qingming Festival, also known as Ancestors Day or Tomb Sweeping Day. The government recently announced that the country’s urban population had surpassed those living in rural areas. That shift, coupled with the one-child policy and other societal changes, has left tens of millions of elderly people living alone, often with little in the way of government aid.

Frederic J. Brown / AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 15, 2012

Children do stretching exercises during a tae kwon do class in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, China. While the country’s older population is growing, China’s birthrate of about 1.54 children per woman is considered far below the normal replacement rate, which is two children per woman.

/ Reuters

Dec. 24, 2011

Two Chinese boys wait before performing Christmas songs with the violin for customers at a shopping center in Beijing.

Feng Li / Getty Images

Jan. 8, 2012

A Chinese father and son ride a sled on the frozen Qianhai Lake in Beijing.

Mark Ralston / AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 14, 2012

Chen Juan, 29, and her husband, Huang Feilong, 31, sit in their Beijing apartment. They were married in 2008 and spent four Chinese New Year holidays together — and every year, they argue over whose parents to spend the holiday with. Both Chen and her husband are only children, so there is pressure on each to spend time at home in Hunan province with their parents. It is a common dilemma for young couples such as Chen and Huang, the first generation from China's one-child policy to grow up and get married, and face the problem of caring for four aging parents. Chen is determined she will have two children, to avoid what she calls the "4-2-1" trap — four grandparents, two parents and one child.

Keith B. Richburg / The Washington Post

Jan. 18, 2012

In this photo made with low-speed shutter, passengers wait to board trains at a station in Chengdu, in southwestern China's Sichuan province. Millions of Chinese are expected to ride China's train network to return home for the Chinese lunar New Year that starts Jan. 23.

/ AP

Jan. 4, 2012

Chinese lunar New Year travelers check train times at a station in Beijing. The week-long holiday, also known as the Spring Festival, begins on Jan. 23 and is the world's biggest annual migration of people as more than 200 million board trains and buses to celebrate with their families.

Ed Jones / AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 18, 2011

A Chinese woman and her son rest as they wait to board their train at a railway station in Hefei, east China's Anhui province on January 18, 2011, as they return home for the lunar Chinese New Year holidays.

/ AFP/Getty Images

Dec. 28, 2011

People line up to buy train tickets at Changsha Railway Station in Changsha, in southern China's Hunan province, in advance of Chinese lunar new year celebrations.

/ AP

Jan. 6, 2012

A man bids farewell to his girlfriend through a train window at a railway station in Hefei, Anhui province, China.

Jianan Yu / Reuters

Jan. 8, 2011

A Chinese man takes photos of his daughter as passengers wait in a train, which is specially offered for migrant workers by local government, to depart at a railway station in Beijing as they return home for the lunar Chinese New Year holiday.

/ AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 8, 2012

People are reflected on the floor as they carry their luggage to catch their train at a railway station in Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu province.

AP / AP

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