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One Quarter of Humanity: Malthusian Mythology and Chinese Realities. By James Z. Lee and Wang Feng. [Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1999. xiii+248 pages. £12.95. ISBN 0-674-0709-3.]

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2003

Extract

This short, provocative, and important book makes two major claims: first, that the low fertility that is well documented for historical Chinese populations is due to rational demographic decision-making rather than to environmental stress; and secondly, that the source of this rational decision-making is the fundamental prevalence of collective authority in China, as opposed to the fundamental emphasis on individual rights in the West.

Type
Book Review
Copyright
© The China Quarterly, 2003

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