Young People Leaving State Care in China

For children who grow up being cared for by the state, rather than their families, in China, the past twenty years has seen a shift: China has gone away from keeping those children in institutions and towards alternative approaches that attempt to honor children’s rights to an inclusive childhood and adulthood. This book reviews the changes in policy and practice that underlie this shift, and, through interviews with young people involved with state care in the period, presents a clear view of how the change in approach has affected individual lives. As this is an issue that all countries struggle with, the lessons on offer here will be of value not just to those working in and studying China but to a broader range of practitioners in child welfare and development.

Xiaoyuan Shang is professor at Beijing Normal University and associate professor in the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Karen R. Fisher is professor in the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, Australia.