国家地理:China's Lost Girls 被抛弃的女孩 -9

After meeting the foster¹ moms, we all walk to the actual orphanage² where Marissa was brought as a baby. We're told there are about 500 children living at this orphanage. There are tens of thousands of children just like them across China. All around us are abandoned children who have never been adopted. Some of them may well have been here when Marissa was. Many of them could spend their entire childhood here.

It's hard to imagine what Marissa is feeling, I mean, being here, at this orphanage, you know, all of these kids were abandoned like she was, but she has a different kind of life now. And I just wonder what she's thinking, I mean, she looks like she's sort of a little discombobulated and with good reason.
I know.
Thank god. She's gonna walk out of here in a few minutes. You know, I mean, she could be still here...
I mean there are so many of them, so many kids...

When it's finally time to go, saying goodbye is tough for everyone.
Thank you so much. It's OK. Marissa. Byebye

The Chinese government realizes that the growing gender³ imbalance is a problem and they are trying to be proactive. So they've set up these little clinics on the edges of the countryside to try and do everything from educating people about family planning issues and actually try and convince the people that girls are equal to boys.

Inside the clinic, we see local residents being educated about family planning and getting medical care. In one room, we meet Peng Hongmei who is pregnant⁴ and having an ultrasound. She can only check the health of her baby, using ultrasound to find out the gender is illegal in China.
Do you know she's having a boy or a girl?
That I definitely don't know. The ultrasound didn't even show it. Even if the ultrasound could show the gender, I wouldn't tell her.

Is it not allowable for, for mothers to find out the gender of the child?
Definitely not. Why? Because in the village, they prefer boy babies. If she had a girl and I told her, she would have an abortion⁵.
One of the things these doctors do is they jump in this van, and they go and talk to people in the villages about the birth control and family planning.

They take us to a village in Senyu in Central China, where doctors go door to door, telling villagers that girls are productive⁶ members of society too.
It's part of a big campaign. There are even signs like these in many villages which say that...

1 foster   

vt.收养，培养，促进；adj.收养的，收养孩子的

参考例句：

• Nowadays young couple sometimes foster.现今年轻夫妇有时领养别人的孩子。
• The captain did his best to foster a sense of unity among the new recruits.队长尽力培养新成员之间的团结精神。

2 orphanage   

n.孤儿院

参考例句：

• They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage.他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。
• They gave the proceeds of the sale to the orphanage.他们把销售的收入给了这家孤儿院。

3 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

4 pregnant   

adj.怀孕的，怀胎的

参考例句：

• She is a pregnant woman.她是一名孕妇。
• She is pregnant with her first child.她怀了第一胎。

5 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

6 productive   

adj.能生产的，有生产价值的，多产的

参考例句：

• We had a productive meeting that solved some problems.我们开了一个富有成效的会议，解决了一些问题。
• Science and technology are part of the productive forces.科学技术是生产力。