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My name is Nanfu.

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In Chinese, "nan" means "man."

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And "fu" means "pillar."

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My family had hoped for a boy,

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who would grow up
to be the pillar of the family.

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And when I turned out to be a girl,

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they named me Nanfu anyway.

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(Laughter)

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I was born in 1985,

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six years before China announced
its one-child policy.

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Right after I was born,

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the local officials came
and ordered my mom to be sterilized.

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My grandpa stood up to the officials,

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because he wanted a grandson
to carry on the family name.

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Eventually, my parents were allowed
to have a second child,

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but they had to wait for five years

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and pay a substantial fine.

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Growing up, my brother and I

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were surrounded by children
from one-child families.

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I remember feeling a sense of shame

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because I had a younger brother.

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I felt like our family did something wrong
for having two children.

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At the time, I didn't question

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where this sense of shame
and guilt came from.

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A year and a half ago,
I had my own first child.

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It was the best thing
that ever happened in my life.

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Becoming a mother

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gave me a totally new perspective
on my own childhood,

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and it brought back
my memories of early life in China.

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For the past three decades,

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everyone in my family had to apply
for a permission from the government

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to have a child.

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And I wondered

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what it was like for people
who lived under the one-child policy.

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So I decided to make
a documentary about it.

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One of the people I interviewed

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was the midwife who delivered
all of the babies born in my village,

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including myself.

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She was 84 years old
when I interviewed her.

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I asked her,

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"Do you remember how many babies
you delivered throughout your career?"

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She didn't have a number for deliveries.

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She said she had performed

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60,000 forced abortions
and sterilizations.

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Sometimes, she said,

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a late-term fetus
would survive an abortion,

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and she would kill the baby
after delivering it.

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She remembered how her hands would tremble

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as she did the work.

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Her story shocked me.

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When I set out to make the film,

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I expected it would be a simple story
of perpetrators and victims.

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People who carried out the policy

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and people who are living
with the consequences.

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But that wasn't what I saw.

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As I was finishing
my interview with the midwife,

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I noticed an area in her house

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that was decorated
with elaborate homemade flags.

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And each flag has a picture
of a baby on it.

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These were flags
that were sent by families

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whom she helped treat
their infertility problems.

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She explained that she had had enough

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of performing abortions
and sterilizations --

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that the only work she did now
was to help families have babies.

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She said she was full of guilt

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for carrying out the one-child policy,

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and she hoped that by helping
families have babies,

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she could counteract
what she did in the past.

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It became clear to me
she, too, was a victim of the policy.

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Every voice was telling her

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that what she did was right
and necessary for China's survival.

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And she did what she thought
was right for her country.

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I know how strong that message was.

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It was everywhere
around myself when I grew up.

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It was printed on matches,

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playing cards,

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textbooks, posters.

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The propaganda praising
the one-child policy

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was everywhere around us.

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[Anyone who refuses to sterilize
will be arrested.]

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And so were the threats
against disobeying it.

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The message seeped into our minds

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so much so that I grew up
feeling embarrassed

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for having a younger brother.

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With each person I filmed,

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I saw how their minds and hearts
can be influenced by the propaganda,

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and how their willingness
to make sacrifices for the greater good

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can be twisted into something
very dark and tragic.

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China is not the only place
where this happens.

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There is no country on earth
where propaganda isn't present.

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And in societies that are supposed to be
more open and free than China,

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it can be even harder to recognize
what propaganda looks like.

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It hides in plain sight as news reports,

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TV commercials, political campaigning

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and in our social media feeds.

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It works to change our minds
without our knowledge.

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Every society is vulnerable
to accepting propaganda as truth,

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and no society where propaganda
replaces the truth

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can be truly free.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)