A Chinese TV drama sought to replace coercive fertility controls with voluntary adoption

Evidence

The government’s one-child policy has heightened the traditional cultural preferences for sons. The television serial drama Bai Xing ( Ordinary People) addressed gender bias in Chinese society and fostered psychosocial changes to supplant coercive institutional controls on fertility with voluntary adoption of contraceptive practices and the preference for small families. The drama graphically portrayed the tragedy and injustice of social practices that force women into arranged marriages and the cultural devaluation of baby girls. The central theme aimed to alter discriminatory gender norms and practices. Viewers were inspired and strengthened by the determination and courage of female characters who challenged the subordinate status of women and who strove to change detrimental cultural practices. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2910

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in norm change through narrative/entertainment-education as a mechanism distinct from coercive policy enforcement.