China's lonely parents tell of loss of only children as family holiday nears

By Grace Li HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese travel far and wide to join their families for the Lunar New Year holiday, but for 60-year-old Xie, whose only child died seven years ago, China's biggest holiday is a reminder that she faces old age with little in the way of financial support. Her daughter, Juanjuan, was 29 when she died, leaving her parents in the ranks of China's more than a million "shidu" families, or those who have lost their only child, in a country where parents have traditionally relied on their children to look after them in old age. Many shidu parents are victims of China's strict family planning policy, which since the late 1970s has restricted most families to one child, and have stepped up calls for compensation. China says the policy has averted 400 million births, preventing the population from spiraling out of control.

via Health News Headlines - Yahoo News http://news.yahoo.com/china-39-lonely-parents-tell-loss-only-children-083804455.html