Deviant fertility in China: A theoretical approach

While most Western and Chinese scholars emphasize the success of Chinese family planning programs, this study focuses on fertility that violates family planning regulations in China. The concept of “deviant fertility” here refers to reproductive behavior that violates current family size norms by producing more than the accepted number of children. An approach that bridges the sociology of fertility and the sociology of deviance is established. Specifically, the theoretical framework is based on the cultural conflict perspective of deviance developed by Thornsten Sellin (1938). The normative conflict concerning fertility in general and confrontations between traditional large family norms and current family planning rules in China are explicated.