Commentary: A Six-Child Family Puts Beijing’s Pro-Birth Policies to the Test

In daily life, a family with one child is the norm. Two is less common. If a family has three, people often guess it must include a set of twins. Families with four or five children are even rarer. What about a family with six?

The first reaction for most is probably surprise. Indeed, in contemporary East Asian society, the heavy burden of raising and educating children leaves many small families breathless. “Dare not have, don’t want to have, can’t afford to have, and can’t manage to raise” has become a common refrain, to say nothing of imagining the challenges of having many children. Yet, some people have truly made a different choice — they have welcomed six little lives.