Social issues and Adoption

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Myths of America

Social issues and Adoption

Gender

Adoption specifically in China was based on gender and in general world wide more females are adopted than males. For China, this was a result of China's One Child Policy which included female infanticide and child trafficking. A documentary called One Child Nation followed a Chinese mother and filmaker, Nanfu Wang, as she uncovers the untold history of this policy and the effects on the people. This documentary was very impactful to me because it made me reconsider my whole adoption and the stories were very powerful and moving. Because there is no one to take care of the rising elderly population the one child policy was ended in 2015 and the two child policy started.

Books on the one child policy: Buy me the Sky by Xinran, China's Hidden Children by Kay Ann Johnson, One Child by Mei Fong, Message from an Unkown Chinese Mother Xinran

76,026 children were adopted from China to the United states between the years 1999-2015

Individual opportunity& Socioeconomic

While adoption is seen as a good thing and I am grateful, I hate people telling me I should be grateful for my parents saving me from a fate in China. This line of thinking is the White Savior complex, where people help non whites for self serving purposes. Visiting orphanages in Africa, or any third world country may sound good but whe you visit you provide support and security only to take it away when you leave. Or in the case of Huxley Stauffer where his parents, Myka and James Stauffer documented their adoption journey on Youtube gaining support and money only to rehome Huxley because he had Autism and they wanted him to have a better home.

Individual opportunity is a factor in adoption because each adoptee is adopted by different parents with different backrounds. Each adoptee has their own story with their own opportunities whether they seize them or not. A couple of examples of opporunity could be education, social lives, adoptee community connection, cultural learning, and so on. A specific opportunity is finding an adoptees birth parents through DNA services or traveling back to their birth country. These services and trips cost a lot of money and not every adoptee has access to these resources. Another resource that I found would be particularly helpful but costs money is https://research-china.org where there are finding ads and other services adoptees can use in their birth parent search. I find it frustrating because I feel these resources should be open source and not used for profit.

Meet me at the bridge- This is an example of a girl in Michigan who found her birth parents

Citizenship also falls under individual opportunity. Many adoptees were failed by the government, adoption and immigration system due to paper work not being finished, adoptions not being recognized, and many other reasons. There is currently an act in congress that needs to be passed before the December 10th, or it will be expired and have to be reintroduced next year. Find more info at this even or at the link!
adoptee citizenship act

Another individual opportunity is being able to live. While adoptees were given an opportunity for a better life many do not get that. For example, adoptees have an increased risk of suicide and there are also stories of adoptive parents that did not provide a better life. October 30th is Adoptee Remembrance day for all the adoptees who did not survive their adoption.

Risk of Suicide Attempt in Adopted and Nonadopted Offspringwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › pmc › articles › PMC3784288

Race

In terms of race many people only see Asian and some people ignore the racism towards the Asian community. In most adoptee famillies, adoptees are forced to conform to the environment they are adopted to. They are not seen when they are looking for their identity and they are often victim of the colorblind world where people say I don't see you as Asian I see you as a person. While this is true it also invalidates the adoptees feelings of wanting their parents or others to see them. This is explained more in a documentary called Adopted where two well meaning families show the subtle challenges they face with adoption, one beginning the adoption process and the other trying to create familial bonds that they never had due to adoption.The results are riveting, unpredictable and telling. While the two families are at opposite ends of the journey, their stories converge to show us that love alone isn't enough to make a family work.
Adopted Documentary on Amazon

Another explanation is given by Hope College Professor and Director for the Ottawa County Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), Robyn Afrik, on a podcast called Transracial Adoptions: What You May Not Know.

Outside the family representation is also a huge part of race. Growing up I saw Mulan and that was the Disney Princess I was supposed to relate with. I always wished there was more Asian representation but recently Asians have begun to appear in movies like The Half of It, To all the Boys I've Loved Before, Crazy Rich Asians and many other shows. P.S. Lana Condor and Leah Lewis are Asian adoptees. Adoptee representation is also in sports with Morgan Hurd an adopted gymnast and four time member of the US womens national team who has wos won many accolades.

Racism towards the Asian community is very normalized and are often invalidated for feeling offense. This includes appropriation, microaggressions, stereotypes, fetisization, and racist trends such as the fox eye trend. With Covid and Trump calling Covid-19 the "Chinese Virus" or the "Kung Flu" there has been increased racism, xenophobia, and hate crimes directed to the Asian community.
Adoptees are also invalidated as the stereotype is that they should be grateful they have a new life or grateful they weren't aborted.

Personal Experience

I was adopted from the Fuling District in Chongqing, China. I was adopted in 2001 and grew up in Michigan where I have lived and grown up for the past 20 years. I went to public school thinking that I fit in until I came to realize I really didn't. It started in Kindergarten when I was mixed up in the lunch line, and middle school where everyone said I ate cats or dogs, and high school when they mixed me up for a Vietnamese girl in the yearbook and several times to my face. Have you ever been asked if your mom works at the nail salon or if you work at the local Chinese restuarant? All of these experiences made me feel like I didn't quite belong to either culture. My parents have been very supportive but some things they just won't understand. I became interested in learning more about my culture when I watched a couple of dramas and then I also started learning the language. Even with this I was mocked for the shows I liked to watch and the music I liked to listen to because it sounded funny or it wasn't in English. Luckily, I found great support through online adoptee platforms and was able to connect with more adoptees and learn more about the adoptee community. I also joined ASU and am hoping to create an adoptee group on campus.
Other Adoptee Resources: Red Thread Broken, SAAT Facebook group, Ted Talk Sara Jones