Generalised poverty caused by overcrowding, large and needy families, irrepressive population growth, absence, before Mao’s policies, of any control of births, etc. prejudices about China are alive. This book, from the outset, attacked the ideas received on the people of China, most of which were inherited from old Malthusian theses dating from the beginning of the 19th century. Overcrowding, misery, fertility, marriage, etc., is being questioned here. The authors address the phenomenon of the Chinese population on several fronts, thus successfully giving an overall picture of it. They shed a new light on the demographic explosion of the years 1960-1975, where the population increased from 600 million to almost 850 million, and then the beginning of birth control until the single child policy in force since 1985. In this way, they renew our understanding not only of China’s demography, but also of its history, society and economy. And understanding China today is a better understanding of the world we live.