FENG SHANYUN
(b. 1949) Yanchuan, China

"Four Benefits of One Child Policy" 1978-1979
woodcut, 31 1/8" x 21 1/4"

In 1978 China implemented the “one child policy” limiting families to one child. By the late 1970s, China was concerned about its ballooning population and the assumed drain on modernization. Great emphasis was placed on delaying births and limiting the number of children as a policy to reduce the population and facilitate overall development. The print depicts the “four benefits” of the policy: “beneficial to the four modernizations; to rearing children; to education; and to the standard of living.”