Southern China Commentary

The year was 1979. China was emerging from decades of questionable economic policies and taking fledgling steps towards the explosive growth that would eventually attract the sordid likes of me to its shores. Two-thirds of the population was below the age of 30. It was a time of aspirations, of vigor, of youth … of baby-making. And so, the one-child policy was put in place. Keep the population in check. Harness and focus the raw, surging, thrusting, caressing, cooing, panting, moaning, giggling, cuddling drive of the people into the economy and country. Did it achieve its intended goal?

Fast forward thirty years to 2009. People yearn to love and to be loved. Men outnumber the women. Aging parents struggle with empty nest syndrome. Affection abounds, but no outlet exists. To what did they turn? Foreign women? No. Foreign Men? Yes. No. Adoption? No. Pets? Yes.

But, it looks like this outlet will soon be regulated as well. Long the case in Beijing, on July 1st Guangzhou will join the ranks of one-dog policy Chinese cities. That’s right, one-dog per household. Owners of multiple dogs will have to decide between keeping Benji or Cujo. New litters will face the tricky task of divvying up pups among multiple households. Spay/neutering will put an end to all those bitches in heat.**

Will city government take its cues from the recent Green Dam debacle and implement this policy with finesse? Indeed, we can draw multiple parallels with the Green Dam filtering software:

1. Announcement of both directives came rather suddenly and without significant public discourse beforehand.
2. Matters are brought right to the doorstep. While control measures were already in place through the Great Firewall of China, these were located in the ether, whereas Green Dam was a shoddy piece of software to be installed directly into one’s home computer. Similarly, population control measures have been in place with roundups of stray dogs, but these happened out of sight. The only thing out of sight from now on will be your Lassie.
3. Public reaction will be emotional in nature. Emotional people are tricky to manage.

How this controlled experiment unfolds will be a good test of how savvy public administrators have become. The stakes are personal, but not too high since only a niche population will be affected, and it comes at a time when sympathy for indignant bourgeois dog owners will not likely override concern for economic slowdown. Perhaps, to facilitate enforcement, Guangzhou could simultaneously lift its ban on dog meat.**

* Lyrics by …
** I can’t believe I wrote that.