Director Zhang Yimou Reported Seven Children Shocks China 张艺谋

Recently Chinese media(媒体méi tǐ) revealed that famous Chinese director（导演dáo yǎn）Zhang Yimou might have fathered seven children. It is against the China's one-child policy.

Hailed as an accomplished fifth-generation director in the country, 63-year-old Zhang, who wowed the world in 2008 with his astonishing Olympic ceremonies, finds himself the brunt of fierce criticism after media reports said he has at least seven children. Frustrated netizens thronged to social media, seizing upon the case as yet another example that privilege is what it takes for one in China to flout laws and regulations.

Zhang kept his second marriage under wraps for years and now has two sons and one daughter with a 32-year-old women from eastern Jiangsu province, Southern Metropolis Entertainment reported on May 6, 2013. Zhang is rumored（谣传[yáo chuán） to have children with another two unnamed women. The director's eldest daughter with his first wife, whom he divorced in 1988, is 30-years-old and now lives in the United States.

Zhang Yimou has so far remained silent.

The so-called one child policy（计划生育jì huà shēng yù） was introduced in 1979 to limit population growth in China, the world’s most populous nation. While the Chinese government say a total of 400 million births would have occurred had the policy not been implemented, critics say it violates human rights and consider it to be outdated given China’s changing demographics.

Exceptions are allowed. Spouses who are both only children in their own families are given the green light to have two children. In rural areas, a second child is legal only if the first born is a girl.

Despite so, the policy still applies to nearly 63 percent of the population and has been unpopular with many Chinese, as reports of brutal forced sterilization hit news headlines in the past few years. In one example, a woman from China's northeast Shaanxi province was forced into abortion（流产liú chǎn） last June seven months into her pregnancy, igniting a national outcry over what many said was an atrocity committed by local family planning officials.

For those violators, a hefty fine（罚款fá kuǎn） will be imposed. Fees vary from region to region.

Zhang is now being investigated for breaching the policy. But until details emerge one day on why his alleged seven children have gone unnoticed by family planning officials, the public anger is unlikely to subside.