AllMovie

In the 1980s, as China's population continued to rise at an alarming rate in a politically and economically precarious environment, the nation's leaders mandated a "one child policy," stipulating that married couples could only legally have a single offspring. In China, cultural and social traditions make boys more desirable than girls to most families, leading to a tragic phenomenon of thousands of female babies being either abandoned or put up for adoption by parents hoping for a male. National Geographic: China's Lost Girls is a documentary hosted by Lisa Ling which examines China's controversial policy, the nation's population crisis, and several American families who have traveled to China in hopes of adopting little girls in need.