When 28-year-old Zanhua felt a contraction grip her body while trimming vegetables for lunch, she wasn’t afraid of the pain that was about to follow. She had already given birth twice and knew what to expect. She also knew that she would have to give birth to her third child in secret because China strictly enforced the one-child policy. Zanhua and her husband Youdong were aware of punishment and heavy fines that awaited them if they were caught. Still, Zanhua wanted a third child because of the family pressure to give birth to a boy. She gave birth to twin girls.While the family had so far escaped the heavier punishments under the one-child policy, this time they were not so lucky. They tried to keep the twins from coming under the radar of family planning officials by keeping them separate. Shuangjie, the younger twin, was with her parents, while the firstborn, Fangfang, was being brought up by her aunt, Xiuhua.But they couldn’t hold on to the twins. In 2002, when Fangfang was three months shy of her second birthday, family planning officials forcibly took her from her aunt. It was only in 2019 that her family met Fangfang, now going by the name Esther, when she visited the village where she was born. They discovered that she was now an American citizen who lived with her adoptive family in Texas.It is the deftly told and meticulously researched story of these twins and their families that is the focus of Barbara Demick’s Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: China’s Stolen Children and a Story of Separated Twins, which was long-listed for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction.Implementation of the one-child policyIn telling the story of the twins, Demick gives voice to the many families who became victims of the often ruthless implementation of the one-child policy. It was people from the poorest economic backgrounds who were the most affected, with officials often resorting to brutal and illegal methods to snatch their children. They were able to pull this off because these families were not well-versed in the legalities of their position.The situation became worse when China opened its borders for international adoption. With the demand for children soaring, trafficking of infants and toddlers became common. Demick reveals how this was made possible by orphanages and family planning officials who, at the very least, turned a blind eye to such illegal practices. The local families were never told that their children, mostly daughters, were being sent abroad, while the adoptive parents were given the impression that the families had abandoned their daughters.Demick’s writing is forceful yet evocative. She moves from micro to macro and back again, her focus firmly on the people who inhabit the story. The characters in the story of the twins all emerge as essentially human, and it’s impossible to not sympathise with them.The story of the systemWoven intricately with the story of the people is the story of the system. The first part of the book spends some time discussing the policy along with its history and implications for China. But Demick grips her readers by ensuring that dry facts never overpower the emotional core of her narrative.Demick also avoids falling into the trap of the white saviour narrative or proclaiming that the life of one sister was inherently better than the other. Instead, she raises questions about the uneasy relationship between innocence and complicity, especially where there is misinformation. This is evident in Marsha’s adoption of Victoria (another Chinese girl) and Esther. Marsha comes across as a woman with good intentions caught in a system that is corrupt and rigged. Her decision to delete her website on adoption because she was afraid that Esther might be taken away from her is deeply human.So is her — and Esther’s — decision to finally contact Demick so that she can help them get in touch with Esther’s birth family. In focusing on the reactions of the twins as they learn of each other’s existence and gradually develop a bond, Demick yet again shines the spotlight on the humanity of her book’s subjects.The biggest strength of Demick’s writing lies in her use of the twins’ story to expose the cracks in a system that manufactured orphans for its own benefit. The story of the sisters and their family is the story of countless other individuals affected by a policy with cross-border consequences.China pulled the plug on its international adoption programme in 2024, almost nine years after it ended the one-child policy. As Demick notes, the country is now looking to increase its fertility rates with many cities “offering incentive payments of up to $8,500 to families who have two or three children.” One can only hope there will be no more stories like Esther’s in the future. As Daughters of the Bamboo Grove demonstrates, no reunion can undo the fault lines, pain, and anxieties of families torn apart.