Abstract
China has carried out “one-child policy” since 1979. While controlling successfully the increasing population, the policy has brought about some social problems. One of them is the emergence of “illegitimate children” whose birth is not officially registered by the parents trying to evade punishment in disobedience to the policy. Those children have no permanent residence or citizenship. Though they are recognized to be a source of serious problems, no known researches have been extensively carried out to this date. On the basis of an investigation from March to August 2000, the author obtained some clarification of the issue of the illegitimate children in terms of their status quo related to education and citizenship. This paper deals with six reasons why parents chose to give birth to children illegitimately : 1) Their strong desire to have a male child, 2) their wish to be supported by son in the old age, 3) a society gripped by a traditional concept of son being the heir, 4) regional differences in the mode and time of enforcing the state policy, 5) the stronger say of the husband in the matter of childbirth, and 6) the tight network of kinship giving support for child rearing.
