China's "Two-Child Policy" has become the subject of jokes in this year's Spring Festival Gala by CCTV, as seen in the skit “Zhenqing Yongzhu” (True Love Lasts Forever). (Photo : YouTube Screenshot)
CCTV's annual Spring Festival Gala reins in the jokes once again--jokes that most young people now see as rather outdated. But more than that, the show's features on family planning leaves viewers with a mix of perspectives.
With the mockery over the Spring Festival Gala having become a traditional thing of sorts among viewers as of late, the ridicule now zones in on the current issue of family planning: the "two-child policy," introduced last year, has become the focus of several of this year's skits.
The Chinese New Year skit "Zhenqing Yongzhu" (True Love Lasts Forever), which has a plot centered on a divorce over the wife's sterility, has attracted a flurry of reactions. The couple in the skit patched things up when the wife decided to submit herself to fertility treatment.
The skit was timely given the present predicament revolving on the two-child policy. A contrasting skit back in 1990 by CCTV, called "Chaosheng Youjidui" (Guerrilla of a Family with More Than One Child), shows a family of three children hiding from authorities due to violating the "one-child policy."
Family planning in China has been predominated by the "one-child policy," which allows only one child per family.
As rapid economic growth went alongside problems of ageing, the Chinese government made the shift to allow two children for couple that are both only children, beginning last year.
Nonetheless, the two-child policy has yet to gain traction and support, with many couples centering their reservations mainly on economic considerations.
Several couples surveyed by the All-China Women's Federation in December last year said that they're not willing to have a second child.
Social and economic pressures characterizing the Chinese economy in recent times have led several couples to think of having a second child as an impractical move, with the government's role seen as integral in promoting the policy.
Watch the full episode of CCTV's Spring Festival Gala below:
