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Today you mentioned that a longer life expectancy meant fewer children, and the idea that educated women have less children than those of rural communities with less education. I had heard the idea before that more educated women with career possibilities tend to have less children than those who are not necessarily educated or have the resources available to them, and had attempted to discuss this with my students before when we were discussing the importance of continuing their education and doing well in high school. However, it didn't go so well because they started arguing that Mexicans have a lot of children whether or not they are educated, and then it became a racial debate that got out of hand quickly and I had to put the issue to rest. I'm wondering if you have any advice on reapproaching that idea when I discuss with them why rural communities have more children versus cities?
Also I was surprised that longer life expectancy meant fewer kids. I honestly would have figured it would be the other way around because the longer you live, the better chance you have of having at least one child. I know many people are waiting to have them until they are in their 30s now, but they are still choosing (or not "choosing" but accidentally) having at least 1 child. The population graphs were really amazing to me because I didn't expect to see such a large gap between the young and old, and even the gaps between men and women. I think this would be a great discussion for the students in my classes because we tend to have very unbalanced classes. For example, I had 4 boys in my first class and 12 girls. Last year I had 5 girls and 17 boys. I think it would be a great example to show them using themselves how hard it would be for a population to survive if there are an uneven amount of girls to boys. And the options that they would have to consider such as moving away, stealing women (as you mentioned today), offering incentives for moving into the country, or even a government sponsered dating service 
But having them discuss and "solving" these problems that are happening in real life will help better prepare them for the real world.
I also found the idea of Fen jia to be interesting because the first thing I thought of when it was mentioned is that eventually you would run out of property to split. I had assumed (wrongly) that China based their inheritence on first son like many other cultures. I hadn't heard of the idea of giving the property to any son because the first son may be undeserving for one reason or another. This sounds like something we would do in the US (and something that many of us probably do in the US already when it comes to inheritance - we just don't include only sons) if we were a "give the property to only your son" kind of country. Again, I think this would be a great discussion for the students on how different cultures treated their sons, daughters, and inheritances. There was so much from today that I found interesting, so the last thing I will say is I was also fascinated by the idea that China may have to turn to poligany (women having multiple husbands) due to the population decreasing. This sounds like many people would instantly view it as "WRONG" because it would be a woman having more than one husband and obviously more than one sexual partner once married. It seems so taboo for a woman to be able to do such a thing, but a man doing it is much more accepted. The idea that China may be forced into it based on population is also alarming because what would happen to the US if we faced such a problem? Again, a great discussion I could have in class with my kiddos!
Clay, Thank you for bringing in the "fenjia" to our seminar, you might have no idea it is how difficult for me (China's younger generation) to understand this concept these days. Due to the One Child Policy, most of my friends and me are the only child in our families, even "the beat generation" is entitled to us by the public to demonstrate how over-indulgent and self-centered we are when we are surrounded by 2 parents and 4 grandparents. Unlike the American counterparts, Chinese parents are not the "hands-off" type, they save a good fortune for their children (remember the saving accounts for over 40% of Chinese spending in today's class? ), preparing for our housing, car, wedding, even their grandchildren
Literally, you basically get everything from your family, especially in the urban area. There is even a saying " boys are the bank of Construction, girls are the bank of Merchants", because normally, the obligation of purchasing a house for newly weds falls on the shoulders of groom's parents.
[font=Times, 'Times New Roman', serif]I am kind of the "witness" of the One Child policy, cuz I am the only one kid in my family, on the bright side, no one share the love from my parents with me, pretty much like a VIP in my family, I am serious. [/font]
[font=Times, 'Times New Roman', serif] For some demographic and economic reasons, A new amendment is put onto the one child policy nowadays in China: If either parent is an only child, then they are eligible to have two children of their own.[/font]