SPEAKING THE UNSPOKEN AND UNSPEAKABLE: LIVING WITH THE AFTERMATH OF SIBLING ABORTION UNDER CHINA'S ONE-CHILD POLICY

Date

2020-02-03

Advisors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

ISSN

DOI

Volume Title

Publisher

European Network Qualitative Inquiry

Type

Article
Conference
Presentation

Peer reviewed

No

Abstract

This is an autoethnographical paper on the experience of living with the aftermath of an abortion in my family due to China's One-Child Policy. My paper shows how the loss of a younger sibling has affected my personal life and how it is like to bring the unconscious grief into awareness. Moving between theories and personal experience, I seek to understand my experience of being a sibling abortion survivor under China’s One-Child Policy through the psychodynamic concept of melancholia, drawing particularly on conceptual resources offered by Freud, Leader and Kristeva. Links are made between the experience of losing an unborn sibling and melancholia which involves loss and grief that are unspeakable and unknowable. By presenting this paper, I seek to give voice to the Chinese generation that is affected by the One-Child Policy and whose voice is seldom heard.

Description

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the URI link.

Keywords

Sibling abortion, One-Child Policy, Loss, Melancholia

Citation

Liu, Y. (2020) Speaking the unspoken and unspeakable: Living with the aftermath of sibling abortion under china's one-child policy. Proceedings of the European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Malta, February 2020.

Rights

Research Institute