Jun 15, 2018
Are adoptees from China lucky? Should they feel thankful to
their adoptive parents? In this episode, award-winning author and
Financial Times international correspondent Patti Waldmeir relates
some of her experiences and personal reactions living for eight
years in Shanghai with her two daughters who were adopted from
China, much of which she chronicled, sometimes with
self-deprecating humor and sometimes with painful honesty, in her
book, Chinese Lessons: An American Mother
Teachers Her Children How to be Chinese in China. During her
time in China, she interviewed locals from a wide variety of
backgrounds to uncover bits and pieces of the complicated story of
how so many Chinese girls ended up in orphanages and adopted
abroad. Her own personal struggles with the issue of abandonment of
children in China were further accented by a striking discovery she
made in a back alley, an experience she movingly shares with
listeners. Her fascinating book is available on Amazon.
Ricki Mudd adds her own thoughts to the topic
of abandonment, from the viewpoint of an adult adoptee from China,
and Iris Leung contributes another perspective as someone Chinese
who has worked in the field of adoption in China. We also consider
different ways to react culturally, personally and emotionally to
commonly heard comments in China that adopted children should
consider themselves lucky and should be thankful to their adoptive
parents.
You may note that we’ve added a new brief
introduction in Chinese at the beginning to go along with a
brand-new page in Chinese on our Website. This page goes into a
little detail about international adoption of China’s children and
explains how international adoptees and adoptive families are
listening to this podcast worldwide. The Chinese page also offers
people in China an opportunity to send a message to respond to
listeners, including information about a missing child, if
appropriate. If you have friends in China, or if you are in China,
please consider sharing our page in Chinese.