The Our Book summary will be out as a farewell speech on the last day of 1998 since there are still couple of days for the stories to come in. The interview conducted by Yannie on Chinese adoption is here to meet with our parents.

Warmest cheers to our dear parents for this holiday season!

Dear parents

I started interviewing Chinese people on Chinese adoption issues threee months ago. My interviewees were from all walks of life -- orphanage director, head of a provincial civil administration department, director of the department of woman worker at a provincial labor union (labor unions are subordinated by local governments), lawyer who helped with international adoption paperwork, travel agency guide who took care of accommodation for American parents when they were on Chinese adoption trip, Chinese students at universities in Chicago area and their parents. Interviews were conducted through phones or face-to-face talks. Questionnaires were organized by me based on my interaction with FCC families, and the questions the parents wrote to me. The data is from government documents. Obviously, the responses can not represent overall opinions nor tell the differences of one orphanage from the other. However, more objective information would be helpful to understand the Chinese adoption and less judgement would be skewed because of the cultural values as well as social and geographical estrangement.

Q. What Chinese people would like to think about when they see American people adopt Chinese babies?

A. The topic of adoption is not popular in the media nor in the daily life of ordinary people in China, let alone the international adoption issue. The local governments is not in the intention to air the activities. After all, it is not that triumphant that a society can not support every one of the children but sign papers for a child to live in a foreign country.

People are different and their opinions are various.

Historically and currently, the criminal activities of selling children could influence the public opinion that social welfare organizations would benefit from the international adoption.

People with nationalist deviations would like to talk in an ironical way, such as "Someday we Chinese would go to the United States to adopt children there." It takes root of the fact that Chinese people had been oppressed by western powers including the United States. People from the western countries were called "foreign devils" during the first and the second opium wars one and a half century ago. The heavy feeling still can be felt right here in Chicago: There are several cultural relics exhibited at the Chicago Art Institute which would arouse emotions -- how they came here? Why they came here? The answer is because of the foreign invasion wars and weakness of the Chinese government at that time.

Beyond all these, the political ups and downs between the two countries would influence Chinese people's attitudes towards adoption by American people.

Nevertheless, the public opinion (if there is one on the adoption) and people with good intentions as well would feel lucky and happy for the child and wish well the child who is going to live in a better-off family abroad.

It is said that the Amendment of Adoption Law was passed under such an atmosphere.

Here, let me (Yannie) extract part of the Law reported and published by People's Daily - Overseas Edition (the leading official newspaper, issued by the Chinese Central Government) on the date of November 5^th, 1998.

17. We heard that both abandonment and sell of children are subjected to prosecution.

A. The report from People's Daily in Chinese version is different (in part) from the Internet Edition issued by The South China Morning Post (published in Hong Kong) and reprinted by FCC New York homepage. In the Internet Edition, it interprets the part as "A clause was added by the National People's Congress Standing Committee subjecting to prosecution those who abandoned or sold children, … ."

The difference between the two versions is obviously different: The measurement of penalty in fact is much lighter in the Amendment, which has been enacted according to the real situation in China -- abandonment behavior is not subject to prosecution unless the abandoned child gets bad hurt or even becomes dead when found.

Penalizing instead of prosecuting individuals who abandoned children would be more practical to enforce the law. And on the other hand, the difference between the cultural values on this issue is obvious.

Abandonment would be there in the country for a long time. The South China Morning Post interpreted the Amendment not in an accurate way but according to their understanding and intention.

Q. When was the current law issued? What is the major difference between the two laws?

1. The first and the current adoption law was issued in 1979 and the Amendment came

out twenty years later, which has set forth the clearer procedures for the judiciary to enforce the law: prosecuting, hearing, penalizing and pronouncing somebody guilty. Different department plays a relevant role in the whole procedure of a case.

It is not that clear with the current law: no prosecutor -- nobody would stand up to report to an authority about abandonment not even the crime of drowning a child; no accurate measurement of penalty -- nobody would get prosecuted when violating the law and children's right, therefore, couldn't be protected legally and strictly.

17. The amendment adoption law opened door wider for both international and domestic

adoptions. What Chinese people's attitudes towards adopting children by themselves?

1. In general, Chinese adoptive parents would protect the adoption as secret from their

adopted children until they are grown up or never tell the truth. 'Why should they know this sad history and let it effect the relationship between parents and children? Leave it as natural as possible.' Some old children when adopted are given the story like 'We lost you in the street when you were little and eventually found you at the orphanage.' In some cases, the family would move to a new neighborhood where nobody knows the child's background. The adoption topic is avoided among family members, relatives, friends and peers in front of an adopted child.

With the effect of amendment adoption law in April next year. People who go to adoption are not just infertile but with their own biological children. Under such a circumstance, logical and legal explanations would be required by different institutions when the child is registered to schools and receives welfare from the local government: medical insurance, residency certificates, official subsidy, welfare houses (sold with consideration of number of factors, such as the size of a household) and a piece of land (in the rural area, each member of a household is assigned with a certain area of cultivated land for growing crops, partially for paying agriculture taxes, partially for self-consuming and vegetables for self-consuming) and therefore, the adoption would become public little by little any way and education on this topic should be available.

I (Yannie) was touched and thought a lot every time when I had opportunity with FCC families. I am always so moved to see our Chinese girls live not just in "better-off families" as the comment from some of us Chinese people, but with their unconditionally loving and devoting parents, uncles and aunties. "Our daughter is new to us every day." as a mom and dad from one family told me. To many families, the coming of their daughter has brought to them not just one child but many other children and relatives as well. Their life suddenly became so rich, joyful and meaningful, which is beyond what words can tell. I believe this is what Chinese adoptive parents should learn from -- an unselfish loving and caring for youngsters, or the meaning and practice of "humanity". The stories you American adoptive parents are sending in will be wonderful text book for those Chinese adoptive parents and parents to be as well as the people who are concerned about the adoption issue.

In the meantime, I have a question to some of my American friends about their American conservatism -- Why not ask your Chinese friends about something that you are not sure about or simply not understanding. For examples, the mottoes for the newsletters and homepages of New York FCC and some other cities look like Chinese characters but not in fact, they are neither simplified nor traditional characters. The motto of Chicago FCC is written in standard Chinese characters, yet the meaning of it sounds like a gang's slogan in ancient China.

17. What is Chinese adoptive parents’ motivation to go adopting children?

1. In general, the parents would be thinking both of the child and themselves are in

mutual need. The infertile couple feel that life is not integrated without a child, while the couple with a biological child would think that their child needs a sibling to develop his or her social skill. Middle or old aged couples feel lonely after their grown-up children left for their own life. Some church goers and temple tribute payers adopt children based on their religious beliefs. With all the different motivations, Chinese adoptive parents believe that they can provide a family to the children who don't know where their parents are.

One point is beyond consideration to most of Chinese adoptive parents, which was mentioned by a FCC parent when chatting about the sex ratio in China: "We’ll let them (adoptive girls) go back to China and get married there when they are grown up." Chinese parents tend to adopt a child to live together with, not just for financial need but very likely for emotional and practical needs.

Q. In our culture, information about a child is important specially a child's birthdate and name. In our group travelling to the same orphanage, our children had the same family names and very close birthdates. It seemed our children were given the names after they arrived at the orphanages. But how they were decided about their birthdates and given the names?

A. The orphanage would accept a child only after she had physical examination at a hospital. Many orphanages have their resident nurses and pediatricians come regularly to give physical checks on children. If a new baby comes without any information about birthdate, she would be ascertained by pediatricians according to her physical development. Some of the children's names would be given after the names of orphanage directors, individuals who make donation regularly to orphanages or according to the names of the places where the orphanages are located or the child was first found.

Q. The orphanage is now not available for us adoptive parents to visit and see what our children's living conditions are like. Why?

A. When a child first comes to the orphanage, a file should be created to track on her. The file includes time, date and place she was found, person who found her and the child's health situation. If a piece of paper written with child's birthdate, birthplace and nickname is wrapped with the baby, that would become authority in the file.

Children at the orphanage are assigned to different groups according to their ages: infant class, toddler class, little class (3 - 4 years old) and big class (5 - 6 years old). Children start the first grade at a nearby primary school when they reach six years old and come back to the orphanage for meals and beds.

The management, sanitary situation, the child's nutritional situation, ratio between adults and children, facilities and so on and so forth are very distinguished from an orphanage to another. Orphanages are totally financed by the civil administration department of a local government. There are over thirty provinces and thousands of cities in China, a few of which are developed and most are developing. Therefore, the living standard of children at orphanages are different. It is required by the local government that children at the orphanages should live a life with an average living standard as local people. The children at Hefei orphanage have 400 Chinese dollars a month, which is a little bit higher than the living standard of local people.

Some of the orphanages would keep some of the child's personal belongs when she first came to the orphanage. A few of the lucky FCC parents were even handed with their children's belongs and showed to the spots where the children were found. Some of the orphanages are not financed sufficiently but managed in a personal and family-style way.

Ever since the exposure of an orphanage in Shanghai, the situation of orphanages has become very sensitive not just to adoptive parents but to politicians and even the relationship between the two governments. Once the politics gets involved in some issues, the situation would become complex and the confusion would skew people’s judgement.

In order to avoid some negative and one-sided impressions or comments which would interfere the adoption, it would be simple and easy to just shut up the door and block the direct interaction between foreign adoptive parents and orphanages.

17. Is the number of orphans increasing or declining?

1. No statistics available as the resource at this point. Based on individual orphanages,

figures are declining. Remember this figure: over 60% of the population in China now live in the rural areas and that is the basic factor to increase the population. In the rural areas, contraceptive uses are popularized, abortions are legalized, medically insured, supported by the public opinions, specially because the women's economic situation has been improved and literacy level raised, family-planning policy has been involved in people's life and once a couple has a boy they would like to follow the policy.

17. How many new babies come out each year in China?

1. 30 million a year on average! That is the number of the whole population of Canada!

Off what are we raising them? A vicious circle is here -- we're consuming our children's natural recourse and they will be consuming their children's, generation after generation. Our production ability in both agriculture and industry is low and China is becoming the biggest nation importing crops from developed countries, which upsets other developing countries.

There is a rumor: annually in China, a population of 1.7 million children is adopted internationally. The number would be challenged. According to Mr. Guo, director of China Center for Adoption Affairs, there are 12 countries (at the time of May, 1998) that have adoption agreements with China, and the United States is the largest country that adopted 10,680 children (up to September, 1997, according to U.S. INS).

Q. What will happen in China when our daughter generation reaches maturity and there is an imbalance ratio between male and female?

A. The unbalance has been there in the rural areas historically. In the 1980s, the local governments and population specialists were appealing to bring the public attention to the situation. According to the statistics in Anhui Province (in rural areas in 1980s),

51.7 % of the population was male and it was not rare that poor guys could not afford bride-price and remained single -- girls were in high demand and their families were picky. The situation still remains the same in some remote places.

Q. What do you (Yannie) as Chinese think about this?

A. I'm concerned. Far beyond this, if my husband and I could not help our son marry a woman because of poverty and unbalance of sex ratio, our life would fall apart completely -- the branch of Jiang’s (my husband’s family name) would be disappeared from this world leaving no offspring at all to pass on the family name and property. Yet on the other hand, as long as the level of literacy, economic development, mode of production (family-based, low-tech farming) are not improved, that phenomenon is not just history but will be remaining the same in some areas for long years.

Q. Family-planning policy has been carried for dozens of years in China. How is it taken into an action now?

1. Family-planning is a national policy. In the early seventies it was interpreted as

"One is best, at most two, never a third." Later on the policy became extremely strict especially in urban cities. Here, let me (Yannie) quote the part of my presentation made on Chinese Heritage Day in Chicago area.

In the urban area -- the permanent employee in urban area will be

1. Deprived of raises the current year or the years to come;

2. Postponed the promotion of professional titles;

3. Expelled of the Party membership;

2. Not given residency permit for the child who was born beyond the

plan (no medical insurance nor benefit of compulsory education);

5. Paying for a certain amount of penalty.

In addition to all these, the family and the child would be discriminated by public opinions.

In the rural area -- the farmer will be

1. Not assigned with a piece of land to the second child;

2. Required to do sterilization surgery after the birth of the second child;

3. Confiscated of their property for the penalty in some extremely strict cases.

The encouragement from the local governemnt:

4. Contraception is applied free in rural areas and,
5. Family planning programs are carried on by farmer representatives and they work with women everywhere on behalf of the benefit of the whole village.

1. Getting fired by the employer;
2. Terminated of the rent lease by the landlord who is required to do so by the

community committee;

3. Advised by the folk representatives who would also perform the duty even away from

home town ( Usually, farmer employees from the same areas live in the same or close communities).

Even in this way, still China will add another half a billion people by 2020 from today's 1.2 billion. A "crisis driven policy", termed by the foreign population specialists, has to be there to limit the increase of China's population.

It's not fair to condemn the family-planning policy while criticizing how crowded the city is, how poor the people are and how … in China.

Q. Were the orphanages established prior to or because of the current one child/family policy?

A. No official record is available at this point. During the years of 1910s and 1920s, the foreign missionaries established orphanages in a few cities along the east and south coasts: Qingdao (Shangtong Province), Tianjin (Hebei Province), Shanghai, Ximen (Fujian Province) and in some inner cities like Harbin (Heilongjiang Province) Beijing, Xi’an (Shaanxi Province), Chongqing (Sichuan Province), Jiujiang (Jiangxi Province), ect.. Children sheltered there at that time were orphans mainly because of the reasons such as their parents were diseased or bankrupted; they were driven away by their step-parents, born out off wedlock, handicapped, or by concubines who didn't have any privilege even for their own lives.

Most of the children sent to the orphanage nowadays are healthy, always wrapped carefully in old fashioned clothes, left at visional places (such as hospitals, train stations, stores, residential areas). And girls are the majority in every one of orphanages. Since the abandonment violates the law and gets penalized and therefore, the child would be left without any information about her to avoid being tracked by the authority. In addition, some of the children’s parents are illiterate and simply do not know how to read and write but long for a dream that their child can find a good family and live a good life.

On the contrary, the couple in urban cities do not have to worry about their life when they are old aged, neither they would believe that only the boy could support them. Therefore "boys and girls are the same" can be accepted.

The appearance of the child, the places they were found, the literacy level the parents had, the differences of life style and the concept between rural couples and urban couples -- judging from all these, children are given up mainly because of the fact that they are girls and from married couples in rural areas.

Q. We would like to live in China for a time -- maybe a couple years -- if our work situations allowed. Would our adopted Chinese daughter likely be accepted or shunned by the native Chinese children?

A. Your child very likely would have too much attention in the beginning of her arrival. Chinese people including children would adore others who have foreign life experience and speak foreign languages, no matter if she is living with her biological parents or not. Later on, during the interaction with her peers and adults, your child can make even more friends as long as she is friendly with others, has good grades and is optimistic towards negative gossips. From my (Yannie’s) own experience, that of my son’s and other Chinese young children and teenagers’, if a child feels discriminated and depressed, most likely it is not because of her look but her personality and her way to interpret of her life.

Q. You (Yannie) are teaching Chinese to some of FCC children and their parents. What is your opinion about the importance of learning Chinese language and culture?

A. I had not realized the importance until my son and my two nephews (now 16, 15 and 9 years old respectively) came back from China trip last year. Since then, my son has made good progress and jumped on "Dean's List". My car is now carrying that honored sticker around. His grades used to be low and so was his confidence about everything. I remember he made an announcement at our family party the second year after he came to the states to join me, he said that he wanted to be adopted by an American family. "In that way, at least I can have something similar to others." When the boys came back from the trip, they felt so proud of their country and being Chinese. My older nephew felt regretted to give up Chinese learning and my son asked for the first time to register the Chinese class. He is now considering to major in a subject that connect with two languages and cultures when he goes to college.

The admiration of someone's own race, ethics, culture is very positive for a child

to develop morality, personality and life attitude. Learning language is part of the culture recognition and should be the life process but not just for grasping some phrases and characters.

There are eight more questions on my questionnaire list that I cannot find adequate information about. Some of them would be the content for my research in the field of sociology. I am going to take three sociological courses and start it in two weeks from now. Some conclusions will be reached in the near future and I would be very glad to share them with you, my beloved daughter friends and you my devoted parent friends.