How Long to Read China's Hidden Children

How Long Does it Take to Read China's Hidden Children?

It takes the average reader 3 hours and 55 minutes to read China's Hidden Children by Kay Ann Johnson

Assuming a reading speed of 250 words per minute. Learn more

Description

In the thirty-five years since China instituted its One-Child Policy, 120,000 children—mostly girls—have left China through international adoption, including 85,000 to the United States. It’s generally assumed that this diaspora is the result of China’s approach to population control, but there is also the underlying belief that the majority of adoptees are daughters because the One-Child Policy often collides with the traditional preference for a son. While there is some truth to this, it does not tell the full story—a story with deep personal resonance to Kay Ann Johnson, a China scholar and mother to an adopted Chinese daughter. Johnson spent years talking with the Chinese parents driven to relinquish their daughters during the brutal birth-planning campaigns of the 1990s and early 2000s, and, with China’s Hidden Children, she paints a startlingly different picture. The decision to give up a daughter, she shows, is not a facile one, but one almost always fraught with grief and dictated by fear. Were it not for the constant threat of punishment for breaching the country’s stringent birth-planning policies, most Chinese parents would have raised their daughters despite the cultural preference for sons. With clear understanding and compassion for the families, Johnson describes their desperate efforts to conceal the birth of second or third daughters from the authorities. As the Chinese government cracked down on those caught concealing an out-of-plan child, strategies for surrendering children changed—from arranging adoptions or sending them to live with rural family to secret placement at carefully chosen doorsteps and, finally, abandonment in public places. In the twenty-first century, China’s so-called abandoned children have increasingly become “stolen” children, as declining fertility rates have left the dwindling number of children available for adoption more vulnerable to child trafficking. In addition, government seizures of locally—but illegally—adopted children and children hidden within their birth families mean that even legal adopters have unknowingly adopted children taken from parents and sent to orphanages. The image of the “unwanted daughter” remains commonplace in Western conceptions of China. With China’s Hidden Children, Johnson reveals the complex web of love, secrecy, and pain woven in the coerced decision to give one’s child up for adoption and the profound negative impact China’s birth-planning campaigns have on Chinese families.

How long is China's Hidden Children?

China's Hidden Children by Kay Ann Johnson is 233 pages long, and a total of 58,949 words.

This makes it 79% the length of the average book. It also has 72% more words than the average book.

How Long Does it Take to Read China's Hidden Children Aloud?

The average oral reading speed is 183 words per minute. This means it takes 5 hours and 22 minutes to read China's Hidden Children aloud.

What Reading Level is China's Hidden Children?

China's Hidden Children is suitable for students ages 12 and up.

Note that there may be other factors that effect this rating besides length that are not factored in on this page. This may include things like complex language or sensitive topics not suitable for students of certain ages.

When deciding what to show young students always use your best judgement and consult a professional.

Where Can I Buy China's Hidden Children?

China's Hidden Children by Kay Ann Johnson is sold by several retailers and bookshops. However, Read Time works with Amazon to provide an easier way to purchase books.

To buy China's Hidden Children by Kay Ann Johnson on Amazon click the button below.