One quarter of humanity : Malthusian mythology and Chinese realities, 1700-2000 / James Z. Lee and Wang Feng.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lee, James Z., 1952-

Contributor:

Feng, Wang.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Demography--China.

Demography.

Marriage--China.

Marriage.

Birth control--China.

Birth control.

Infanticide--China.

Infanticide.

China--Population.

China.

Physical Description:

xii, 248 p. : ill., map.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1999.

Summary:

One Quarter of Humanity presents evidence about historical and contemporary Chinese population behavior that overturns much of the received wisdom about the differences between China and the West. James Lee and Wang Feng argue that there has been effective regulation of population growth in China through a variety of practices that depressed marital fertility to levels far below European standards, and through the widespread practices of infanticide and abortion. These practices and other distinctive features of the Chinese demographic and social system, they argue, led to a different demographic transition in China from the one that took place in the West.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

I Mythologies

1 Introduction

2 Malthusian Myths

II Realities

3 Subsistence

4 Mortality

5 Marriage

6 Fertility

III Implications

7 System

8 Society

9 Demography, Ideology, and Politics

Appendix: Chinese Population Sources, 1700–2000

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Second printing, 2001.

First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2001.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-239) and index.

ISBN:

9780674334922

0674334922

9780674040052

0674040058