Family Infrapolitics “Out of quota births”, Bureaucracy and Biopower in China

Since China abolished the One-Child Policy in 2016, research on the policy has largely focused on its social, cultural, and demographic consequences. The experiences of families who had “out of quota” children—those deemed illegal under the policy—remain underexplored. This study asks how families with “out of quota” babies engaged with local bureaucracy, theorizing the acts, gestures, and thoughts involved in attempting “out of quota” births as “infra-politics”. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with families who had “out of quota” babies and with low-level bureaucrats, this study analyzes how families teased, deceived, and bargained with officials to have additional children.