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Underreporting of births and infant deaths in rural China: evidence from field research in one county of northern China

Publication ,  Journal Article
Merli, MG
Published in: China Quarterly
January 1, 1998

This is a study of two parallel but distinct data collection systems in Ciqixian, a mostly rural district of Zibo city in Shandong province: the family planning demographic and contraceptive surveillance system and the registers maintained by the health system. A comparison of the sets of birth records maintained by the two agencies can provide evidence of underreporting in family planning records: one hypothesis is that health records may be more complete than family planning records because the health system is plausibly not subject to the same political and administrative issues. But the analysis of data alone says little about the ways in which individual and programmatic priorities combine to produce anomalies in the recording of demographic events. It does not tell us why underreporting occurs and what the consequences of this are. This study is also an ethnography of the statistical-administrative apparatus in a Chinese rural area where the family planning policy is vigorously enforced. Evidence from conservations with family planning and health workers are brought to bear on questions that are closely intertwined within the contours of the Chinese family planning programme - questions of policy, politics, state control on reproduction and the relationship between peasant society and the rural bureaucratic structure.

Duke Scholars

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Published In

China Quarterly

DOI

ISSN

0009-4439

Publication Date

January 1, 1998

Issue

155

Start / End Page

637 / 655

Related Subject Headings

  • Cultural Studies
 

Citation

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Merli, M. G. (1998). Underreporting of births and infant deaths in rural China: evidence from field research in one county of northern China. China Quarterly, (155), 637–655. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305741000050025
Merli, M. G. “Underreporting of births and infant deaths in rural China: evidence from field research in one county of northern China.” China Quarterly, no. 155 (January 1, 1998): 637–55. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305741000050025.
Merli, M. G. “Underreporting of births and infant deaths in rural China: evidence from field research in one county of northern China.” China Quarterly, no. 155, Jan. 1998, pp. 637–55. Scopus, doi:10.1017/s0305741000050025.

Published In

China Quarterly

DOI

ISSN

0009-4439

Publication Date

January 1, 1998

Issue

155

Start / End Page

637 / 655

Related Subject Headings

  • Cultural Studies