Tag Archives: China adoption

China Adoption Book Review Series: Wanting a Daughter, Part Two: Chinese Do Adopt Daughters

My last blog shared some of Kay Ann Johnson’s research from her book Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son. This blog continues with more of Johnson’s research, this time in an area which I have never seen addressed in all the reading I’ve done about adoption in China. This topic is the adoption of Chinese foundlings by Chinese parents in China. Johnson began her research interested in the situation of birthparents who abandoned children. She soon discovered a greater interest in what became of the children. Only a minority, she says, (her book was published in 2004) are adopted abroad, … Continue reading →

China Adoption Book Review: Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son

Kay Ann Johnson is a professor of Asian Studies and Politics at Hampshire College. Yet when she adopted her daughter from a Chinese orphanage in 1991, she felt not only the anxiety of participating in what was then a new adoption program, but also a great desire to learn more about her daughter’s story, or at least the story of many girls like her. Why are children, especially girls, abandoned in China? What consequences—emotional and practical—do the birthparents face? Do most foundlings enter the orphanage system? Johnson’s 2004 book, Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son: Abandonment, Adoption and Orphanage Care … Continue reading →

China Adoption Book Review: The Lost Daughters of China

Karin Evans is a journalist. Her book, Lost Daughters of China: Abandoned Girls, Their Journey to America, and the Search for a Missing Past alternates between her story of adopting a one-year-old Chinese girl and her research into the circumstances leading to the abandonment of so many girls from China. (I should point out, as I’ve written before, that abandonment is not always—nor even usually in other countries—leaving a child to its fate. In countries where there are no adoption agencies helping birthparents nor laws allowing the relinquishment of babies, leaving a child in a place where she will easily … Continue reading →

Chinese Birthparents Found: More to Come?

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The June issue of Adoptive Families magazine contains news of what is believed to be the first successful birthparent search by a Chinese adoptee. A Dutch couple has located their 10-year-old daughter’s birthparents. Jim and Wilma, who are withholding their last names, explained that their daughter’s persistent interest in her biological parents prompted them to tell their story to the media in Chongqing, the city where baby Elina was found. A couple came forward and DNA tests confirmed their biological parenthood of Elina. Child abandonment is illegal in China, and the birthparents said they walked from their village to Chongqing … Continue reading →

Different Countries have Different Criteria for Adoption

The Associated Press reported that Chinese officials met with representatives of U.S. adoption agencies earlier this month to announce changes in some of their criteria for foreign adopting parents. Many Americans are surprised to find out that countries placing children for international adoption each set their own criteria for adoptive parents. Thus, an individual or couple visiting an American adoption agency might learn that they are eligible to adopt from one of that agency’s international adoption programs but not another. For example, some countries are open to single parents adopting, some are not. Some countries have maximum age limits for … Continue reading →