The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a press briefing Sept. 5 that China was terminating its international adoption program, halting all future adoptions including those with already pending applications. The statement lasted no more than a few sentences but marked a monumental shift in China’s history of adoption. This sparked many Chinese adoptees, including those from Occidental, to share their reactions to the policy, which ranged from sadness to relief.
From 1992 to Sept. of this year when the decision was released, an estimated 160,000 babies were adopted internationally from China, over half of whom were adopted into U.S. families. Most of these U.S. adoptive families were upper-middle class, headed by parents over 35 and white. Most of the adoptees were women.
Associate Professor of History Jane Hong said this wave of international adoptions was a direct result of the one-child policy, which limited most Chinese families to one child each from 1980 to 2016.
“The one-child policy effectively created a problem of excess children,” Hong said. “The sheer number of second children who were born forced the Chinese government to have to figure out different arrangements for those kids.”
Hong said the majority of adoptees being female could be explained by the economic benefit of male children in China, as well as some cultural preferences for male children who could carry on the family name.
While Chinese adoptees may share some commonality in origin, their experiences growing up vary immensely.
Jane Hutton* (junior) was adopted from the Guangdong Province of China when she was 16 months old and grew up in Boise, ID. Hutton said she has had strong and complicated emotions surrounding adoption for as long as she can remember. Her experience of adoption was heavily marked by growing up in a white household in a predominantly white area, something she said she struggled with as a kid.
“Growing up, it was tough. I wanted to be white because everybody around me, even within my own family, was white,” Hutton said. “There were a couple other Asians in my elementary school, and I remember you were always asked if you were related to the other ones, even if you were a totally different ethnicity.”
Hutton said that while she loves her family, she also thinks they were not always aware of the potential harm adoption can cause.
“I don’t think my parents were properly informed on the idea that there was loss with adoption — you’re losing culture,” Hutton said. “I think there is an understanding that you take this baby, you love it and you’re a family now, and that’s the happy ending.”
Hutton said that a discovery she made in 10th grade further complicated her relationship towards her adoption. After watching a documentary and looking deeper into her birth records, she realized that she was likely trafficked as a baby.
“It’s hard to deem that action good or bad,” Hutton said. “Obviously I’m not dead, so that’s good.”
Hutton said that learning of this possibility challenged the common narrative of adoption as something destined to happen.
“With adoption, you already don’t know a lot, and this meant I knew even less,” Hutton said. “It questions the idea that this was meant to be.”
Abigail Montopoli** (junior), was adopted from the Anhui Province of China when she was 10 months old and grew up in Tacoma, WA. Montopoli said she did not question her identity too deeply growing up, possibly because of her early exposure to Chinese culture and other Chinese adoptees.
“From age 3, I was surrounded by a lot of other Chinese people, some of whom were adopted, some of whom weren’t,” Montopoli said. “I had a lot of very early interactions with other kids that look like me and who had a similar family structure to me.”
Montopoli said she has observed an assumption that all adoptees will share one perspective or lived experience.
“I have had a different experience than, say, the person who talked to CNN about their experience,” Montopoli said. “There needs to be more diverse discussion about [adoption] because everyone has had such a different experience, no one person who gets approached by the news can determine public opinion about it.”
Jean Meyer (junior) was adopted just before her first birthday from the Chongqing Province and grew up in Irvine, CA. Meyer said that while she was raised in a place with a large Asian American population, it was not always a part of her identity that she felt connected to.
“I was in an area that had a lot of Asian American celebration and culture,” Meyer said. “But I didn’t feel a part of it because I didn’t have that connection to it through my family or through people close to me.”
One of the large differences Meyer said she observed between Chinese adoptees has been in their interest or indifference to learn about Chinese culture and in their curiosity about their birth family.
“Some people are really invested in finding where they came from, and finding people they’re blood-related to,” Meyer said. “For me, I just don’t care that much. I’ve really enjoyed how I’ve grown up and the family that I have and the friends I’ve made and the community I found. I’m very focused on this being what my life looks like.”
Meyer, Hutton and Montopoli had varying reactions to China’s decision to end international adoption. Hutton said the decision caught her off guard and that she was not initially sure how to react.
“It just happened so suddenly,” said Hutton. “When people look back on this time, it’s just going to be a thing that happened, and in the broad scheme of things, didn’t happen for that long. It’s just so strange to think that in the future, I’m going to be a product of something that existed for such a small portion of time.”
Meyer said her attitudes towards the decision are complicated, and she empathizes with other adoptees experiencing a range of emotions about the decision.
“Partially it’s really upsetting because there’s a lot of families who were told that they were gonna get this child and they were really excited,” Meyer said. “But on the other hand I think there’s a lot of unspoken trauma that comes with being in a transracial adoption and having parents that aren’t the same race as you. So I think it’s a very nuanced issue.”
*Jane Hutton is a media editor for The Occidental.
**Abigail Montopoli works for The Occidental as a photographer.
Contact Estel Garrido-Spencer at garridospenc@oxy.edu
