Transnational and “Orphans” from ’s Perspective:

A Culturally Taboo Topic

Kierstin Conaway EAST 400: Senior Seminar Dr. Chan April 28, 2019

1

1. Introduction

Only in the past couple of decades has transnational adoption, also referred to as

, become “a significant way of forming a family for those who cannot have

children.”1 It is marked by the disparity and unequal power between countries: adopted children

tend to move from poorer to wealthier countries and families. The forces that establish a country

as rich and powerful, though, are historical, shaping the transnational adoption field by events such

as colonization, the Cold War and globalization.2 Thus, when it comes to transnational adoption, it is usually more common to obtain the perspective of a country that received children, focusing on the adoptee after they left their birth country. As a way to delve into the other perspective, this paper seeks to explore the other standpoint present in this international exchange: the viewpoint of a country that has sent their children abroad in the past couple of decades. The country of interest for this paper is China. Having personally spent a semester abroad in China and being acquainted with people that are Chinese adoptees, I grew curious as to how native Chinese people view transnational adoption. These adoptee acquaintances have informed me that Chinese people tended to view them as just another Chinese person, especially since they look ethnically Chinese. Upon speaking to these adoptees in various daily life situations, however, Chinese people appeared confused at their lack of fluency, which led the adoptees to explain that they were adopted as an infant. My friends reported that these Chinese people, after keying into the word “adoption,” reacted uncomfortably and would immediately switch topics or find a reason to end the conversation. Admittedly, it is impossible to be aware of the family background of the Chinese people my friends had a conversation with and also not possible to know whether they were

1 Laura Briggs and Diana Marre, “Introduction: The Circulation of Children,” in International Adoption (New York: New York University Press, 2009), 1. 2 Ibid., 2. 2

personally affected or involved in adoption. Consequently, it is conceivable that the Chinese people were hesitant continuing the conversation as they did not want to reopen a possible wound

for my adoptee acquaintances. Nonetheless, it seems that discussing transnational adoption within

China’s culture and society may be stigmatized and discouraged.

In this paper, I plan to outline the reasons behind the existence of Chinese “orphans” and

the underlying feelings that are produced from their existence. Undeniably, China’s One-Child

Policy—particularly when paired with traditional Chinese culture—has led to the phenomenon

known as China’s “missing girls” in the adoption field.3 Via research on adoption, both domestic

and transnational, it is obvious that there are several possible underlying reasons, all of which

include external pressure of some sort, that result in children becoming “orphans.” These

reasons—including government involvement, the lack of economic stability of the relinquishing

family, etc.—have all played a role in children being abandoned and sent to .

Nevertheless, how do these stimuli directly affect birth and the birth family? Are these

families actually willing or do they feel forced to give up their child? Does this type of situation

cause a deep pain that those involved bury so as to protect themselves? Does any discomfort also

arise and get magnified to a national level, in terms that China fears that it has lost mianzi (face)

by allowing foreigners to adopt their children?4 Given China’s history and culture, it is reasonable

for the Chinese government and the sect of people directly involved to avoid discussing

transnational adoption and “orphans.” This discomfort, which instigates a complex array of

3 The term “missing girls” will be explained in section 4.2 of this paper, “Analysis: China’s Missing Girls.” 4 The concept of face in Chinese culture can be closely defined as “an image of self delineated in terms of approved social attributes.” Whether there is a distinction between positive or negative, though, is on the basis of “internal and external or subjective and objective aspects of face.” Consequently, face is something that “may be achieved, lost, saved…[and] at least maintained,” establishing the concept as the Western idea of “reputation,” only more crucial. See Xiaoying Qi, “Face: A Chinese Concept in a Global Society,” Journal of Sociology, vol. 47, no. 3 (2011): 282- 86. 3

emotions, becomes a reason to establish the two subjects as sensitive, taboo-like conversation

topics in Chinese society.

2. The Shift from Domestic to Transnational Adoption

The purpose of this section is to create a generalized understanding of the history of

adoption in China. The history of domestic adoption and the regulations surrounding the field

could perhaps shed light into how transnational adoption would be considered, especially as the trend grew drastically compared to domestic adoption in recent decades due to the group of female children known as China’s “missing girls.”

(1) Domestic Adoption in China

Ann Waltner, in her book Getting an Heir: Adoption and the Construction of Kinship in

Late Imperial China, focuses her research regarding domestic adoption to the Ming (1368-1644)

and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Though, she briefly mentions that, much like late imperial China,

the Han (206 BCE-220 CE) and Song (960-1279) dynasties both utilized domestic adoption as a

remedy for imperial succession issues. 5 Regardless of the time period, Waltner’s research expressed that during dynastic times adoption across surname lines was prohibited, but that prohibition was generally disregarded.6 The reasoning behind the same surname requirement was

because the sole purpose of adoption was to obtain an heir to continue the family name and for

continuing ancestral worship;7 many clans also had rules to “forbid the adoption of outsiders into

the clan and forbid the adoption out of clan members” for fear of creating chaos in the lineage.8

Yet, adoptive families often found it easier to adopt across family surnames, especially as family

5 Ann Beth Waltner, Getting an Heir: Adoption and the Construction of Kinship in Late Imperial China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990), 2. 6 Ibid., 48. 7 Ibid., 80. 8 Ibid., 58. 4

needs became more diversified. Defying the law showed that informal adoption was used to satisfy

other needs of the family, such as a bride for a son, household servants, etc.9 This range in reasons

for adopting demonstrates that adoption had drastically different interpretations in Chinese society,

whether that be full incorporation of the adoptee into the family or nothing more than just a method

to satisfy the needs of the family. 10 In addition to the surname aspect of the law, there were legal

codes in place that clearly expressed the fear of the adoptee abandoning their adoptive parents, demanding punishment if this were to occur.11

According to Arthur Wolf and Chieh-shan Huang, adoption up to the mid-1900s did not

evolve much from the Qing dynasty. Rather, it became more apparent that “adoption [was] best

viewed as the means by which families manipulated their composition to solve immediate

problems and to achieve long-term goals,” particularly as families desired a male heir.12 Families

still preferred to adopt from outside the surname line, likely through an intermediary, during the

19th and 20th centuries.13 Adoption outside lineage ties was viewed as a means to protect the adoptive ties as it made it more difficult for the adoptee to find out the identity of the birth parents; adoption in this form thus minimized the possibility of the adoptee returning to his or her birth family. Thus, Chinese people did not feel pressured into following the surname law when selecting an heir or child to adopt into the family.14 However, some areas had stricter management of the

law and adoption; in their research, Wolf and Huang commented that some areas had stronger

9 Informal adoption of a female infant for the purpose of obtaining a bride for the son was not viewed as incest. Instead, it was to ensure the loyalty of the daughter-in-law by raising her within the family while simultaneously avoiding “the expensive ritual costs associated with a ‘normal’ marriage.” See Kay Johnson, Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son: Abandonment, Adoption, and Care in China (St. Paul: Yeong & Yeong, 2007), 7. 10 Waltner, Getting an Heir, 26. 11 Ibid., 64. 12 Arthur Wolf and Chieh-shan Huang, Marriage and Adoption in China, 1845-1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980), 57. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid. 5

lineage organization, which would allow for greater enforcement of the same surname requirement

for adoption.15

Limited research for domestic adoption after 1945 exists, but sample census data compiled by Kay Johnson in “Politics of International and Domestic Adoption in China” suggests that

“‘informal ’ were numerous and increasing” throughout the 1980s and 1990s.16 Although it is unclear what “informal adoptions” entailed, adoption was viewed in rural areas as permanent and complete transfer of children into the adoptive family.17 The majority of adoptions during this

time were female since they were considered to be more expendable from the perspective of the

birth family.18 Waltner speculates that this gender ratio was always the case regarding adoption;

while there is not any proof to support her conclusion, Chinese families are patrilineal, making it

likely that only male adoptions would be recorded in genealogies or court records.19

In the beginning of the 1990s, domestic adoption from orphanages far exceeded transnational adoption.20 Had domestic adoption not been prominent during this time, Chinese

orphanages would have been far more overcrowded than they were. Adoptive families risked the

possibility of being fined or penalized for violating —including regulations regarding

childlessness or the minimum age requirement.21 Nonetheless, Chinese families were still a strong

force that managed to adopt and take care of perhaps hundreds of thousands of abandoned

children.22

(2) Transnational Adoption

15 Ibid. 16 Kay Johnson, “Politics of International and Domestic Adoption in China,” Law & Society, vol. 36, no. 2 (2002): 382. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid., 384. 19 Waltner, Getting an Heir, 122. 20 Johnson, “Politics of International and Domestic Adoption in China,” 384. 21 Ibid., 386. 22 Ibid. 6

In the beginning of the 1990s, domestic adoption from Chinese orphanages exceeded those

adopted through transnational adoption.23 However, this trend quickly reversed, “numbers of

international adoptions grew rapidly from less than 100 in 1991 to more than 6,000 by the end of

the decade.” 24 In the meantime, domestic adoption—while there are not any precise official

statistics—did not appear to follow the same, positive trend.25 Why did transnational adoption

emerge in China and continue to grow rather than domestic adoption?

The change in the adoption trend began as a result of a law adopted in 1991 that paved way

for transnational adoption by limiting domestic adoption to only childless parents above the age

of 35.26 Consequently, domestic adoption was severely restricted and incidentally contributed to

the rise of infant abandonment during the implementation period of the One-Child Policy;27 birth parents could no longer easily seek out adoptive parents for unwanted or over-quota children, leaving them with only two options if the pregnancy was brought to term: infanticide or abandonment. Further promoting transnational adoption over domestic was the establishment of a countrywide system, which facilitated “the placement of the children through international adoption and to regulate the exchange of documents, foreign currency, and the movement of children across international borders.”28 Having this system in effect, the pool of potential adoptive

parents multiplied by including those in foreign countries, compensating for the deficit of potential

adoptive parents available domestically.29

The number of transnational adoptions from China to Western countries increased significantly after the new adoption law was carried out. By 1995, China had already become the

23 Ibid., 387. 24 Ibid. 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid., 388. 27 See section 3.2 in this paper detailing the One-Child Policy for a generalized overview of the policy. 28 Johnson, “Politics of International and Domestic Adoption in China,” 387. 29 Ibid., 389. 7

country that sent the most children abroad for adoption.30 This trend, based off estimated statistics,

continued for almost an entire decade before falling sharply in 2006.31 Since China’s international

adoption program started, over 140,000 children have joined predominately white middle-class

families.32 The amount of children China lost through transnational adoption is high and greatly

impacted all of those involved.

3. Orphans in China and the Possible Sources

Considering the increase of children available for adoption in China, it is pertinent to

understand the underlying reasons as to why this may be. Accordingly, this section will explore

the possible sources behind China’s “orphans,” which likely influences how they are perceived in

Chinese society.

(1) Traditional Chinese Culture: Male Preference

Chinese culture, whether urban or rural, favored the birth of sons over daughters for

centuries, as exemplified through language: “the more sons, the more happiness” (多子多福, duoziduofu) and “value males and belittle females” ( 重男轻女 , zhongnan-qingnü). In the

Confucian classic The Book of Poetry, there is a poem—part 2, book 4, ode 5, “Sze kan”—that

narrates “the completion of a palace, description of it, and good wishes for the builder and his

posterity.”33 In the last two stanzas of the poem, Confucian ideals regarding gender preference of

children are clearly defined. Below are those two stanzas as translated by James Legge:

30 Peter Selman, “The Movement of Children for International Adoption: Developments and Trends in Receiving States and States of Origin, 1998-2004,” in International Adoption (New York: New York University Press, 2009), 36. 31 Ibid. 32 Leslie K. Wang, Outsourced Children: Orphanage Care and Adoption in Globalizing China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016), 14. 33 James Legge, The Chinese Classics with a Translation, Critical and Exegetical Notes, Prolegomena, and Copious Indexes, vol. 4, The She King, or the Book of Poetry (: Hong Kong University Press, 1960), 303. 8

Sons shall be born to him:— They will be put to sleep on couches; They will be clothed in robes; They will have sceptres to play with; Their cry will be loud. They will be [hereafter] resplendent with red knee-covers, The [future] king, the princes of the land.

Daughters shall be born to him:— They will be put to sleep on the ground; They will be clothed with wrappers; They will have tiles to play with. It will be theirs neither to do wrong nor to do good. Only about the spirits and the food will they have to think, And to cause no sorrow to their parents.34

This Confucian classic is an anthology of approximately 300 poems, ranging from praise or

criticism of rulers to daily life matters.35 Confucianism, in The Book of Poetry and in other classics

that exemplify its teachings, demonstrates “dedication to learning as a lifelong spiritual calling,

emphasis on social relationships, and moral integrity despite the temptations of fame, power, and

wealth.”36 Given the prevalent focus on the master and the male gender in his teachings, the gender

against female infants in “Sze kan” is amplified to women of all ages. Women were

typically viewed as subservient compared to men in terms of social relationships; “the ancients

said that the relationship between the wife and her husband was like that of the minister and his

ruler, and so men took precedence over women and men were honorable while women were

contemptible.”37 Thus, Chinese society had a patrilineal and patrilocal family system, holding a

prejudice against daughters.38 This family system further developed into males being traditionally

34 Ibid., 306. 35 William Theodore De Bary and Irene Bloom, “Classical Sources of Chinese Tradition,” in From Earliest Times to 1600, vol. 1 of Sources of Chinese Tradition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 25. 36 Jeffrey L. Richey, “Confucianism in China,” in Confucius in East Asia: Confucianism’s History in China, , Japan and Việt Nam (Ann Arbor: Association for Asian Studies, 2013), 7. 37 William Theodore De Bary and Richard Lufrano, “The New Culture Movement,” in From 1600 Through the Twentieth Century, vol. 2 of Sources of Chinese Tradition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 392-93. 38 David M. Smolin, “The Missing Girls of China: Population, Policy, Culture, Gender, Abortion, Abandonment, and Adoption in East-Asian Perspective,” Cumberland Law Review, vol. 41, no. 1 (2011): 14. 9

viewed as the breadwinners since they could care for their elders and carry on the family line;

daughters, though, were less favored due to the expectation of them automatically “join[ing] their

husbands’ families at marriage.” 39 Sons, subsequently, meant life-long emotional gain, financial

security and the possibility of the receipt of a dowry at marriage, while daughters were “perceived by most families as a net economic and emotional loss.”40

Another integral part of social relationships according to Confucian ideals is filial piety,

which is considered to be the root of all virtue. It “commences with the service of parents,” and

proceeds upward to the ruler.41 The Chinese word for filial piety, xiao (孝), is the combination of

two other characters: the top one signifying an “old man” or “old age” and the other character

meaning “a son.”42 Accordingly, Shwo Wăn, the oldest Chinese dictionary (A.D. 100), defined the

term as “a son bearing up an old man,” or in other terms, “a child supporting his parent.”43 There is a Confucian classic describing filial piety for every type of social relationship, as well as “The

Twenty-four Filial Exemplars” that describe extreme events in which one can be filial towards their parents; one example includes a woman breast-feeding her -in-law as she was not able to consume actual food.44 A factor in being filial as a woman, or at least in order to be considered

a “good woman,” is to produce a son for the husband’s family.45 Otherwise, the wife risked being

39 Susan Greenhalgh and Jiali Li, “Engendering Reproductive Policy and Practice in Peasant China: For a Feminist Demography of Reproduction,” Signs, vol. 20, no. 3 (1995): 614. 40 Smolin, “The Missing Girls of China,” 14. 41 Richey, “Confucianism in China,” 14. 42 Max Müller, “The Hsiâo King or Classic of Filial Piety,” in Sacred Books of the East (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1899), 449. 43 Ibid. 44 William Theodore De Bary and Richard Lufrano, “Popular Values and Beliefs,” in From 1600 Through the Twentieth Century, vol. 2 of Sources of Chinese Tradition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 139. 45 Guiling Chen 陈贵领, "Wenxue mingci: qichu 文学名词: 七出" [Literary Term: Qichu], Chinese Civilization Network (中国文明网), April 25, 2008, http://www.godpp.gov.cn/wmzh/200804/25/content_13082680.htm (accessed March 24, 2019). 10

divorced by the husband since there were seven conditions in which divorce could arise—unfilial

towards parents, not bearing a son, lewdness, jealousy, disease, loose tongue and stealing.46

Following Confucian ideals and further lowering the status of female infants was China’s land distribution system that started in the Xia dynasty (approx. 2070 BC-1600 BC); the system reached its full potential during the Zhou dynasty (1045 BC-256 BC) through stricter enforcement via the Well Field System and Equal Field System.47 These historical systems have one aspect in common with the more present-day system: “allocating fields based on the number of household members.”48 Females, on average, would receive fifty percent less arable land than males in the

family.49 Granted, this allocation was dependent on the dynasty and changed throughout China’s history. Nonetheless, the system allowed for inequality between men and women to become deeply rooted in Chinese society and culture. Consequently, males—since they carry on the family name—were “the source of the family property and the creators of its wealth.”50 Rural and urban

land allocation varied due to economic disparity, contributing to the land reform system continuing

in villages until the end of the twentieth century.51 Those that lived in the city were able to collect

food directly from the government; those in villages, on the other hand, received grain ration

according to the number of family members, but many local officials did not count female

infants.52 With rural families having a limited supply of food when it came to their children, it

seems natural for them to choose feeding a son over a daughter, especially when considering

cultural reasoning and the economic aspect of the son being able to offer manual labor.

46 Ibid. 47 Xinran Xue and Nicky Harman, Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012), xix. 48 Ibid. 49 Ibid., xix-xx. 50 Ibid., xx. 51 Ibid., 29. 52 Ibid. 11

(2) One-Child Policy

In 1953, China carried out its first national modern census, which showed China’s

population equating approximately 602 million people.53 The census went on to estimate that the

annual birth rate was around 2.0 per cent. 54 However, Yinchu (马寅初, 1882-1982), an

economist and President of , was unconvinced of those results and pursued his

own research.55 Based off his own calculations, he found that “the annual growth rate of the

population was more than 2.2 per cent, and in some places as high as 3.0 per cent.”56 This growth

rate would cause China’s population to rise to 2.6 billion within fifty years.57 Consequently, Ma

saw the necessity to have a family planning program in place to slow the population growth of

China.58 Putting forth his “New Population Theories,” Ma advocated for family planning and birth

control so as to balance the population growth and the development of the national economy.59

Despite linking “the growth of the population to that of the standard of living,” Ma was greatly criticized by officials for his ideas, especially with traditional Chinese culture regarding fertility and more children as means for and signs of prosperity.60

Mao Zedong (毛泽东, 1893-1976), leader of the (CCP), openly ignored and disapproved of Ma’s advice. Instead, Mao believed that population growth would allow China to catch up with Western countries; this chosen path of action followed the tone set

53 Jisen Ma, “1.2 Billion—Retrospect and Prospect of Population in China,” International Social Science Journal, vol. 48, no. 148 (1996): 261. 54 Ibid. 55 Ibid. 56 Ibid. 57 Ibid. 58 Mohammad Mainul Islam, Lihua Pang, Gong Chen and Xiaoying Zheng, “Review of Ma Yinchu on Chinese Population,” Society & Change, vol. 5, no. 2 (2011): 29. 59 Ibid., 30. 60 Ma, “1.2 Billion—Retrospect and Prospect of Population in China,” 262. 12

at the 1957 meeting in the Soviet Union.61 With China’s manpower the only resource available to

increase production, the CCP launched the Great Leap Forward (approx. 1958-1961) as a means

to strive towards the advancement of China economically through various projects, including an

increase in agricultural production that failed immensely and costed many lives through a

nationwide famine.62 Despite the short famine period, China’s population continued to grow by

220 million in the next twelve years (1962-1973).63 This drastic change was due to the overall

improved economic conditions for people throughout China and an increase of the birth rate as

people were attempting to compensate for the loss of life. 64 As China’s population quickly

approached 900 million, officials began to grow concerned and saw the need for Ma’s instruction

of implementing a family planning system.65 However, it was not until China began its economic

reform in the late 1970s that the Chinese government paid strict attention to the population issue.66

China's One-Child Policy, officially adopted in 1979, is well-known throughout the world

as being one of the most strategic, yet harshest, state birth planning programs.67 The policy, which

underwent various alterations and phases, served the purpose of curbing China's population growth

rate. Officials seeking for a quick, political solution did not consider the implications of the policy

at the family-level within China's cultural context—a patriarchal kinship system that favors sons

over daughters.68 Instead, they desired that the fertility rate fall even further so as to not risk the

61 Ibid., 263. 62 Ibid., 264-65. 63 Ibid., 265. 64 Ibid. 65 Ibid. 66 China’s economic project during the 1970s was centered on Deng Xiaoping’s (邓小平, 1904-1997) reforms, which were meant to fine-tune the socialist system and to expand China’s economy by “opening the door” to outside economies in order to become globally competitive. See Justin Yifu Lin, Demystifying the Chinese Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 64. 67 Susan Greenhalgh, “Controlling Births and Bodies in Village China,” American Ethnologist, vol. 21, no. 1 (Feb. 1994): 3. 68 Xiao-Tian Feng, Dudley L. Poston, Jr. and Xiao-Tao Wang, “China’s One-Child Policy and the Changing Family,” Journal of Comparative Family Studies, vol. 50, no. 1 (2014): 21. 13 possibility of their economic project failing;69 “reducing the population growth was understood as

‘the essential ingredient for a “modern” Chinese nation-state’s survival, without which plans for national development and security were threatened.’” 70 Since the policy implemented was geographically dependent in terms of governmental involvement and expectations, it resulted in the implementation across the nation varying drastically, particularly urban areas in comparison to rural communities. The leaders’ prime concern was the rural population, which composed three- quarters of the entire population of China. Consequently, the One-Child Policy provided a solution, though drastic, to curtailing the population growth by demanding “all couples to limit themselves to one child,” especially those in rural communities.71

Anthropologist Vanessa L. Fong briefly summarizes the implementation of the One-Child

Policy as follows: “Farmers had higher fertility than urban residents even before the One-Child

Policy, and two-child families are the norm in rural areas, where farmers overwhelming desire for sons who can serve as labor resources and old-age insurance has made the One-Child Policy difficult to enforce.”72 As Fong hinted, the One-Child Policy was not implemented as smoothly in the rural communities. In urban areas, the policy was fairly accepted, and most couples did not want to risk paying fines for additional children. Rural areas, though, were quite the opposite: traditional Chinese culture and geographical location led to preference for multiple children with at least one son. The policy, due to this reality, was altered after backlash to fit local needs.73

Opposing the traditional idea of male dominance and socioeconomic need of having multiple children, “the policy encountered strong resistance from many villagers whose lifetime

69 Greenhalgh, “Controlling Births and Bodies in Village China,” 6. 70 Wang, Outsourced Children, 31. 71 Greenhalgh and Li, “Engendering Reproductive Policy and Practice in Peasant China,” 607. 72 Vanessa L. Fong, “China’s One-Child Policy and the Empowerment of Urban Daughters,” American Anthropologist, vol. 104, no. 4 (Dec. 2002): 1100. 73 Greenhalgh and Li, “Engendering Reproductive Policy and Practice in Peasant China,” 625. 14

goal was to have as many children as possible, especially sons.”74 Women especially lashed out

and protested the policy, gaining a role of agency as they attempted to negotiate the terms of the

policy.75 This display of disapproval led to leeway in the policy in rural areas by allowing women

to have two children if their first was a female.76 Nonetheless, this alteration did not come without

input from local cadres, who required that the birth of the two children be two years apart.77 Within a decade after the implementation of the official policy, eighteen provinces—two thirds of China— had altered the policy to what formally became known as the “daughter-only” policy.78 The

“daughter-only” policy legally instated the cultural inferiority and “made the gender of the first

child a legitimate basis for reproductive behavior,” allowing a second child to be born if the first

was female.79 The policy also indirectly encouraged abandonment and infanticide since birth order

and the absence of a brother became crucial factors in determining the fate of female infants;80 after the first female child, the risk of the next daughter being left behind increased as the family wanted to try again for a son.81 Rewriting the policy to formally legalize gender inequality directly

contradicted the Chinese Constitution, which considers men and women to be equal.82 Despite this

contradiction, the state formally adopted this rewrite for rural areas around 1984 into official

policy.83

(3) Illegal Means of Obtaining Children for Adoption

74 Yunxiang Yan, “Planning Birth: Changes in Fertility Culture in a Chinese Village,” Études Rurales, no. 161-162 (Jan-June 2002): 130. 75 Greenhalgh, “Controlling Births and Bodies in Village China,” 12. 76 Greenhalgh and Li, “Engendering Reproductive Policy and Practice in Peasant China,” 625. 77 Ibid. 78 Ibid. 79 Ibid. 80 Johnson, Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son, 84-5. 81 Ibid. 82 Greenhalgh and Li, “Engendering Reproductive Policy and Practice in Peasant China,” 625. 83 Greenhalgh, “Controlling Births and Bodies in Village China,” 13. 15

Transnational adoption attracts roughly “U.S. $3,000 per capita in mandatory orphanage

donations and an additional U.S. $1,000-$2,000 in other fees and expenses paid by the adoptive

parents [while] in China.”84 At this rate, orphanages were able to receive annual donations totaling

anywhere from $100,000 to $500,000, which was a vital resource in enhancing the orphanage

facilities in terms of the environment and employees, as well as improving the care of the

orphanage children.85 Transnational adoption, consequently, was viewed by some as a reasonably

effective method for the welfare system to obtain funds, especially since the more children an

orphanage successfully placed abroad, the more revenue they were able to earn.86 As a result, a portion of the orphanages that were participating in the transnational adoption program preferred to have a continuous supply of healthy, young infants on hand; if not through the usual means of finding children that were abandoned, then through the participation in illegal methods, creating a market to essentially sell children as orphanages were seeking to replenish the supply of infants.87

According to David Smolin’s argument in The Missing Girls of China, most outsiders assumed that China’s transnational adoption system was “generally free of the , child trafficking, and abusive adoption practices that created scandals in many other sending nations.”88 China was perceived to be well-organized and a model country for adoption, despite

the uneasiness some adoptive parents felt towards the controversies regarding the level of care

children received in orphanages, and the correlation between China’s One-Child Policy and the

number of abandoned female infants.89 However, this perception was challenged—and likely

84 Johnson, “Politics of International and Domestic Adoption in China,” 388. 85 Brian H. Stuy, “Open Secret: Cash and Coercion in China’s International Adoption Program,” Cumberland Law Review, vol. 44, no. 3 (October 2014): 363. 86 Ibid. 87 Elizabeth Raleigh, Selling Transracial Adoption: Families, Markets, and the Color Line (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2018), 2-3. 88 Smolin, “The Missing Girls of China,” 59. 89 Ibid. 16

drastically changed based off the declining adoption trend—in 2005 upon the news of a scandal

surrounding the Duan family; the family had a history of providing children to the local city

orphanage and has had multiple run-ins with the law due to the line of business.90 One particular

run-in involved the arrest of two Duan sisters at a railway station as they were observed kidnapping

three female infants.91 They claimed that the Duan family was involved in a trafficking ring that

had been selling infants to the local social welfare institute since 1995, with an estimated total of

191 children being their victims. 92 “While the Chinese government took great efforts to characterize this as an aberration unrelated” to transnational adoption, other scandals and news have accumulated.93 Brian H. Stuy in his research estimates that Chinese orphanages resorted to participating in baby trafficking by 1996, paying significant sums and offering incentives to obtain

children.94 Chinese orphanages that utilized this method used scouts or intermediaries (traffickers) to recruit and seek children.95 As one orphanage director stated, “if you don’t pay any money, how would you find any babies?”96

Another avenue for orphanages to receive children was through the actions of family-

planning officials. 97 Prior to the Duan family scandal mentioned above, adoptive parents

automatically assumed that the young, healthy infants available for adoption were relinquished by

the birth parents willingly; in reality, there were cases of family-planning officials using aggressive

tactics to force the family to give up their child.98 Sometimes, officials directly kidnapped children,

in broad daylight or during the middle of the night. Officials confiscated children just to send them

90 Ibid. 91 Stuy, “Open Secret,” 370. 92 Ibid., 379. 93 Smolin, “The Missing Girls of China,” 60. 94 Stuy, “Open Secret,” 386. 95 Smolin, “The Missing Girls of China,” 60. 96 Stuy, “Open Secret,” 386. 97 Ibid., 387. 98 Ibid. 17

to a local orphanage for adoption, often receiving financial kickbacks for doing so.99 Not only would officials seize hidden over-quota children, but also just as frequently grab children that were not yet formally registered with the Residence Committee offices in their village.100 Family-

planning confiscations have been documented throughout multiple provinces, offering a higher

revenue for those orphanages while simultaneously fueling a black market for baby trafficking.101

While confiscations of children were not as common as baby buying programs, they still contributed to a not-inconsequential number of children that entered China’s transnational adoption system.

An additional method employed by government officials to increase the number of adoptable children was approaching families under false pretenses. Chinese families that had financial difficulties were often the target of officials pursuing this route, especially since their lack of funds was what the officials groomed them to feel guilty about. Officials would offer the family’s child an opportunity to receive an education at no cost.102 The child, if the parents agreed,

would move to live in an orphanage to obtain said “education.” However, as soon as an adoptive

family agreed to an adoption, the officials returned to the Chinese family to inform them that their

child had been offered a chance to go to school in the West.103 The officials, attempting to complete the adoption, then utilized extreme pressure to convince the parents to sign relinquishment papers.104 “Education” became a ploy to entice and trick parents into giving up their child for adoption without them realizing. Given the circumstances that the government officials obtained these children, many were older and sometimes well above the adoptable age of fourteen as

99 Ibid. 100 Ibid. 101 Ibid., 389. 102 Ibid., 398. 103 Ibid. 104 Ibid. 18

outlined by adoption law passed in 1991. Consequently, one adoptive parent expressed confusion

upon finding out the actual age of her adopted son; “she had gone to China to adopt a boy who

was ostensibly a young teen, and now she realized that she had adopted a near-adult [of seventeen

years of age].”105 According to the same woman interviewed, many of her acquittances that

adopted from China during the same time period and through the same agency experienced a

similar situation.106 While it is possible that the scope of this method to get more children into the transnational adoption system was limited, the fact that the actions were those of government officials and the entire adoption triad were victims did not bode well for China’s reputation in the adoption field.107

(4) Lack of Sexual Education

The economic reforms and open-door policy initiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1979 allowed

for China to rush head first into economic development, but it also led to outside influence entering

the country.108 This outside influence, primarily Western, set the stage for Chinese traditional

culture to mix with other cultural ideas. According to Xue Xinran’s research in a Message from an

Unknown Chinese Mother, young Chinese people had fallen in love with Western culture during

the 1990s, integrating even Western notions of sexuality, which can be further exemplified by the

facet of literature by those termed as the bad-girl writers. These female authors’ narratives outlined

women’s desires and sexual experiences in autobiographical form, highlighting the casualness

behind the sexual encounters.109

105 Ibid., 396. 106 Ibid. 107 The adoption triad includes the birth parents, adoptive parents and the child placed for adoption. The triangle represents the intricate ties that binds and brings an adoption story together for life. See Lita Jordan, “What Is the Adoption Triad?,” Adoption.org, https://adoption.org/what-is-the-adoption-triad (accessed February 20, 2019). 108 See Lin, Demystifying the Chinese Economy, 64. 109 Shelley Chan, “Sex for Sex’s Sake? The ‘Genital Writings’ of the Chinese Bad-Girl Writers,” in Asian Literary Voices: From Marginal to Mainstream (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2011), 54. 19

Coinciding with traditional expectations of purity and virginity, sex was viewed as a dirty

word in Chinese homes, schools, society and even within family units.110 This perspective on

sexual intercourse contributed to the lack of sexual education and general knowledge on the topic.

Consequently, Chinese society produced citizens that were sexually ignorant, allowing for

“affection, sex, and love” to automatically be viewed collectively as the same concept.111 Without

a full understanding of these terms and an overall lack of sexual education, Western influence

through the use of film and music eventually led to unexpected pregnancies.

Traditionally, sexual acts were not something to be discussed, and therefore, there was not

any formal education on the topic. The younger generation, having been exposed to newer, less

conservative ideas comparatively, had more of an open-minded perspective when it came to sexual

relations. Thus, the younger generation was much more experimental than previous Chinese

generations, leading to premarital intercourse, often without any form of contraceptive or

protection. While females knew to expect monthly menstruation, many did not understand that

missing their period was a sign of pregnancy, nor did they realize that sexual intercourse was how

one reproduces. In an interview provided by Xue Xinran, a young college student informed her lover that she had “a lucky illness, I haven’t had a period for two months.”112 The boyfriend reacted

surprised, but he eventually disappeared by transferring to another school.113 The female, broken-

hearted, didn’t realize that she was pregnant until her abdomen began to continually swell.114

The situation of pregnant and unmarried was viewed as shameful in Chinese society to the

extent that it brought disgrace to the female’s family, sometimes leading to the girl being disowned,

110 Xue and Harman, Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother, 11. 111 Ibid. 112 Ibid.,12. 113 Ibid., 13. 114 Ibid. 20

which is what happened to the young female interviewed above by Xue.115 Furthermore, during

the implementation of the One-Child Policy, couples had to obtain a birth permit in order to have

a child; birth permits became a way to regulate and enforce the policy as only those that properly

applied and received a birth permit could give birth to a child that would be legally recognized as

a citizen by the state.116 For an unwed woman, the birth of a child was automatically considered illegal as she would not possess a birth permit due to the requirement of presenting one’s marriage certificate during the application process.117 These young women were subsequently forced into

the same options as wives that gave birth to a baby girl during the One-Child Policy: abortion,

abandonment or infanticide. The young woman interviewed personally decided to relinquish her

child through abandonment.118 Thus, it does not seem farfetched to assume that the sexually awakened teenagers and young adults in this time period also followed a similar path if impregnated, contributing to the number of Chinese children available for adoption.

(5) Financial Instability and Commitment to the Workforce

China’s economy was steadily on the rise in the 1990s, increasing the living standards for citizens, at least for those in urban areas; rural areas, as typical in economic development, were

lagging behind, creating a large disparity gap between urban and rural areas.119 Thus, many of

China’s citizens that live in the countryside must become a migrant worker if they desire to earn a decent salary to make a living.120 Though, working fulltime and taking care of one’s child was not

115 Ibid., 16. 116 "China Denies Rights to Children Born without Permits, Devastates Families," Live Action News, November 19, 2015, https://www.liveaction.org/news/china-denies-rights-to-children-born-without-permits-devastates-families/ (accessed April 25, 2019). 117 Yan, “Planning Birth: Changes in Fertility Culture in a Chinese Village,” 136. 118 Xue and Harman, Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother, 18. 119 Lin, Demystifying the Chinese Economy, 2. 120 Migrant workers (农民工) are workers that have a rural household registration, but are employed in an urban workplace. The children of migrant workers tend to have limited access to opportunities, such as education and healthcare. See “Migrant Workers and Their Children,” China Labour Bulletin, November 21, 2017, www.clb.org.hk/content/migrant-workers-and-their-children (accessed March 28, 2019). 21

always a feasible route for a young mother. Additionally, “among workers at any level in China,

it was far too common for parents to be so busy that they neglected their children,” especially if

the paternal grandparents could not watch over the child and hiring a nanny was out of the question

due to financial instability.121 Consequently, some parents, in this situation, decided to give up the

child for adoption with the hopes that it would be adopted into a family that was better off

financially.122

In an interview from Xue Xinran in a Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother, a set of parents were finally able to conceive a child after several miscarriages. Given the late timing, both sets of grandparents had already passed. The parents contemplated hiring a nanny, but feared that the cost would be too much of a burden to manage in addition to other life expenses. They also felt that they would be too worried about their child if they hired a nanny due to stories they had heard detailing the potential risks hiring a nanny could entail; “those a-yis from the countryside don’t know what they’re doing and I’d heard about so many near disasters: once someone’s daughter was stuffed into the washing machine, another time the a-yi let a two- or three-year-old run after

the car, and one a-yi gave a baby pork lard to eat as a snack.”123 Instead of fretting or wanting the

child to be raised into such a strenuous life, some Chinese parents, like those interviewed by Xue,

decided that it would “be much better for [their] child to be adopted into a middle- or upper-class

family in the West.”124

(6) Chinese Law in this Context

Domestic adoption had clear legal codes and expectations for adoptive families to follow.

However, many families did not care about the same surname law nor was it strictly enforced.

121 Xue and Harman, Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother, 151. 122 Ibid., 154. 123 Ibid., 152. 124 Ibid., 154. 22

Nonetheless, upon the introduction of the 1991 adoption law, transnational adoption was given

preference over domestic adoption. The law passed in 1991 severely limited domestic adoptive

families by restricting them to the minimum age of 35 and being childless.125 Simultaneously, the

law made it “illegal for parents to relinquish a child except under extraordinary and rare

circumstances.”126 This law further outlined that only minors under the age of fourteen are eligible

to be adopted, contingent upon them fitting within one of the three categories: “(1) orphans

bereaved of parents; (2) abandoned infants or children whose parents cannot be ascertained or

found; or (3) children whose parents are unable to rear them due to unusual difficulties.”127

In one fell swoop, the 1991 adoption law made abandonment the only way in which parents

could relinquish a child.128 Thus, the implementation of the One-Child Policy in conjunction with

the adoption law helped prompt an influx of Chinese children available for adoption.129 Under the

policy, law was strictly adhered and over-quota children were frowned upon, leading to strict

consequences via fines, loss of benefits or being fired from one’s job.130 Between the restrictions

in place with these two laws, parents were no longer able to easily hide or attempt to use a loophole

by seeking an adoptive family on their own; rather, they were forced to abandon the infant.131

Furthermore, abandonment is clearly defined as a crime in both the 1950 Marriage Law and in the

Law Protecting the Rights and Interests of Women and Children that was passed in 1992.132

125 Johnson, “Politics of International and Domestic Adoption in China,” 388. 126 Kay Ann Johnson, China’s Hidden Children: Abandonment, Adoption, and the Human Costs of the One-Child Policy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), 12. 127 “Adoption Law of the People’s Republic of China,” The National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China, November 4, 1998, http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/Law/2007-12/12/content_1383868.htm (accessed January 27, 2019). 128 Johnson, China’s Hidden Children, 12. 129 Ibid. 130 Fong, “China’s One-Child Policy and the Empowerment of Urban Daughters,” 1101. 131 Johnson, “Politics of International and Domestic Adoption in China,” 389. 132 Kay Johnson, Banghan Huang and Liyao Wang, “Infant Abandonment and Adoption in China,” Population and Development Review, vol. 24, no. 3 (1998): 479. 23

The adoption law paved way for transnational adoption, allowing for China’s children, or specifically “missing girls,” to be adopted by foreigners. Domestic adoption, on the other hand, decreased, but was still present. Traditionally, age 35 was “an unacceptably advanced age to become a first-time parent,” at least in regards to social norms and practice.133 While there were some adoptions that followed the law accordingly, many domestic adoptions went through unofficial, non-government affiliated channels.134 Adoption through secretive methods generally insinuated that the adoptive parents were underage or had other children, which made it illegal for them to adopt and thus, impossible to legalize the adoption.135 Many of these children, sometimes referred to as “black children,” lacked the documents necessary for them to be recognized as citizens of the state since they went unregistered.136 If a child continued to go unregistered, they would be forever deprived of entitlements, such as education beyond primary level, health care, etc.137

In an attempt to alter the adoption environment of China—including eliminating the contradiction of the 1991 law that restricted “adoption at precisely the moment that more homes were needed for abandoned children”—a revised law was sent to the National People’s Congress in 1998.138 The proposed revision, enacted in 1999, was an attempt to allow for more domestic adoptions, preferably legal adoptions directly from orphanages.139 The new law lowered the age from 35 to 30, but more importantly enabled families with children to adopt.140 These new requirements were viewed as a breakthrough in the field, but implementation did not go as

133 Johnson, “Politics of International and Domestic Adoption in China,” 389. 134 Ibid., 391. 135 Ibid. 136 Ibid. 137 Ibid. 138 Ibid., 390. 139 Ibid. 140 Ibid. 24 planned.141 Rather, birth-planning forces opposed the revisions and sought to limit their scope by specifying that the children could only be adopted if they were “being raised in welfare institutions;”142 moreover, the revision stating that parents with children could adopt healthy foundlings was buried deep within the fine print of the law.143 Kay Johnson’s research shows that the impact of the revisions presented in the 1999 law indicated that domestic adoptive parents that adopted children through other means still had a hard time registering the adoption to obtain a legal status for the child.144

4. China’s Perspective on Transnational Adoption and “Orphans”

As this paper is intended to argue, this section will focus on analyzing how the above stimuli contribute to the pain and fear of losing face in China’s society. Via analysis of interviews and letters from Xue Xinran’s Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and

Love and other sources, there will be evidence to support the assumed idea that birth mothers would feel pain upon the relinquishment—or infanticide in more severe cases—of their child. This pain can be felt at a national level to then establish the topics of transnational adoption and

“orphans” as taboo in Chinese culture.

(1) Analysis: China’s Missing Girls

Due to the aforementioned reasons behind the existence of Chinese orphans, China’s gender ratio imbalance grew significantly; “between 1982 and 1989 the number of boys born per

100 girls born rose from 107 to 114.”145 This sex disproportion further increased to upwards of

“124 males per 100 females” by the early 2000s.146 These statistics are well above the biologically

141 Ibid. 142 Ibid. 143 Ibid. 144 Ibid., 391. 145 Greenhalgh and Li, “Engendering Reproductive Policy and Practice in Peasant China,” 601. 146 Smolin, “The Missing Girls of China,” 4. 25

normal level of “105 to 107 males per 100 females,” which shows that China is missing roughly

“10% of its females at or near birth.”147 These female infants are considered to be China’s “missing

girls” in the adoption field. Yet, it is unclear whether the “missing girls” term encompasses only

those that ended up in the state’s care—with the potential of being adopted and thus, literally

missing from China—or all of the females that are missing in proportion to the population of

males;148 this discrepancy stems from the conservative estimates of abandoned children per year

from government officials, and the publication of a Chinese article stating that “only about 20

percent of these abandoned/homeless children end up in state care.”149 For the sake of the analysis

in this section, “missing girls” will refer to those infants that entered the adoption system,

regardless of the reason behind the child’s status change into an orphan.

The implementation of the One-Child Policy threatened the socioeconomics and culture of

village life because it overlooked the felt economic necessity of having multiple children and, hopefully, at least one son. The socioeconomic aspect derived from the need to have more hands

to support the family, which acted as a means for the parents to secure their future livelihoods in a

society with an inadequate social welfare safety net.150 From Susan Greenhalgh and Jiali Li’s

research, it was revealed that women in villages were often in fights over the fate of their daughters

as they were viewed as less desirable than a son.151 Daughters, subsequently, were merely subjects

of their families’ choices. If the couple’s first child was a female, they were allowed to give birth

to a second child as a means to try for a son, as stated by the policy rewrites. However, the second

child would be aborted, abandoned or even killed if the baby was another daughter.152 While it is

147 Ibid. 148 Johnson, Huang and Wang, “Infant Abandonment and Adoption in China,” 471. 149 Ibid. 150 Wang, Outsourced Children, 29. 151 Greenhalgh and Li, “Engendering Reproductive Policy and Practice in Peasant China,” 615. 152 Ibid., 618-19. 26

illegal, according to the Population and Family Planning Law of the People’s Republic of China, to discriminate against, mistreat and abandon female infants, the traditional view of being a “good woman” remained, which implies that a woman should give birth to a male infant.153 Therefore,

mothers that had a baby girl were pushed into a tight spot. According to the stories of birth mothers

from the 1980s and 1990s that Xue Xinran collected in her book Message from an Unknown

Chinese Mother, female babies were often either killed upon birth through various methods—such as suffocation, drowning, etc.—or abandoned. This choice, though, was never given solely to the mothers; rather, it was a decision indirectly made for them or made with heavy persuasion from the husband’s family. With the influence of traditional Chinese culture being prevalent in the countryside and amongst its civilians during the implementation of the One-Child Policy, in-laws and husbands often pressured or guilted the wife into giving up her own child if they were displeased with the child’s gender.154 Many in-laws went as far as blaming, abusing or abandoning

the wife if she did not produce an heir for the family.155 Therefore, women themselves were likely

to desire a son, producing a dilemma that strained itself against the longing to keep the daughter.

The One-Child Policy, when enforced, not only forced birth mothers to give up their

daughters, but it also led to the surveillance of families by family planning officials. The policy

was lenient in rural areas, allowing for the birth of a second child if the first was a female. While

it was possible to bribe these officials to turn a blind eye, many officials would actually use

aggressive tactics “to forcibly take children from their birth families.”156 Occasionally, these

confiscations would involve children that were over-quota, as well as those that were never

153 Xue and Harman, Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother, xx. 154 Ibid., 28. 155 Johnson, Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son, 5. 156 Stuy, “Open Secret,” 387. 27

formally registered with the state and thus, innocent.157 This method of forcing birth parents to

relinquish their children became a means to satisfy the demands of the orphanages and,

subsequently, the adoption market.158

In addition to government intervention, Chinese children were also left behind by their

birth parents due to financial issues and the stigma of single parenthood. Many of China’s citizens

who live in the countryside had to become a migrant worker in order to make a living. However,

work can be time consuming and exhausting, leading to possible child neglection. Therefore, some

parents chose for the child to be adopted into a family that was better off financially.159 Not only

would a better economic status possibly be more beneficial for raising a child, but having two

parents, from a traditional perspective, would also be better for the child. Analyzing the stories

provided in Xue’s book, it appears that the majority of single parents in China, as in most other

countries, are unwed mothers. Considering that premarital sex is taboo in China’s conservative

society, it is not surprising that mothers were advised to hide the existence of their child, or even

pretend that the child was never born by deciding to abandon it as a means to save mianzi.160 Thus, infants would be abandoned regardless of their gender.

The adoption law passed in 1991 strengthened the transnational adoption system by placing emphasis on the program over domestic adoption. This law, in conjunction to establishing classifications for an orphan, made it illegal for birth parents to relinquish their child except under very rare and extreme circumstances. Subsequently, the only method available for most parents to give their child up for adoption was through abandoning the child, which did not guarantee the child’s safety as there was always the likelihood that the child may have not been found or was

157 Ibid. 158 Ibid. 159 Xue and Harman, Messages from an Unknown Chinese Mother, 154. 160 Ibid., 133. 28

ignored by onlookers. With abandonment also being a crime outlined in other laws—the 1950

Marriage Law and the 1992 Law Protecting the Rights and Interests of Women and Children—

"government facilities [were] unlikely choices for abandoning a child,” primarily since they

represent the government and could insinuate a possible arrest and prosecution. 161 Infants, therefore, were often abandoned in areas where the family could remain anonymous, such as trodden paths, public restrooms, bridges, etc.; additionally, abandoning a female infant on the doorstep of families that had only sons was not infrequent as they appeared to be likely candidates for adoptive parents.162

(2) Transnational Adoption in this Context

With pressure from government policies, officials, traditional culture, family members, etc.,

mothers were often forced to give up their children. As the relinquishment of their children was

unwilling, it is only natural for the birth mothers to have an array of emotions. In a study done in

Canada, half of the birth mothers stated that they have felt loss, pain and mourning for the child that they have lost to adoption, even several years later.163 Through Xue Xinran’s interviews with

birth mothers, it is observable that the maternal instinct is the same across cultures—the pain when

the link between birth mother and child is severed is immeasurable.164 Many of the birth mothers

that spoke to Xue Xinran and Kay Ann Johnson mentioned deep, tangible pain that constantly

haunts them. In reference to this pain, an unknown mother-in-law stated, “any woman who’s had

a baby has felt pain, and mothers of girls are all heartsick too!”165 Indeed, in Johnson’s recent book,

China’s Hidden Children: Abandonment, Adoption, and the Human Costs of the One-Child Policy,

161 Stuy, “Open Secret,” 368. 162 Johnson, Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son, 91. 163 “Adoption Trauma: The Damage to Relinquishing Mothers,” Origins Canada Supporting Those Separated by Adoption, 2010, https://www.originscanada.org/adoption-trauma-2/trauma_to_surrendering_mothers/adoption- trauma-the-damage-to-relinquishing-mothers/ (accessed March 29, 2019). 164 Xue and Harman, Messages from an Unknown Chinese Mother, 95. 165 Ibid., 33. 29

none of the birth mothers she spoke to appeared to have walked away unscarred from the loss of

her child.166 Coinciding with this pain, an unnamed woman in Xue’s book attempted suicide twice

as a way to end her grieving. Referring to the Canadian study, 63% of birth mothers that

relinquished children had suicidal thoughts.167 China, specifically, was at the top of the United

Nations report in 2002 for female suicide, making it one of the few nations where more women

than men commit suicide.168 If making one’s child an orphan factors into a higher suicide rate,

then it would cause third parties to also feel a sense of grief and guilt, to the point that those with

direct ties to the adoption system may be uncomfortable speaking about orphans and adoption.

Like China, American society has overtly patriarchal roots. Thus, as Ann Fessler reports in her pathbreaking book, The Girls Who Went Away, in the post-WWII era until the early 1970s, when unwed women got pregnant, they were sent away from home and viewed as mentally unstable people who had brought disgrace to the family.169 Consequently, these women were not

allowed to keep their child and were coerced into giving up their child to adoption; many of these

women were not given a choice either.170 While the circumstances slightly differ from China, these

women also experienced pain from the loss of their child. When these women attempted to discuss

their own story, people around them tended to respond by stating something along the lines of

“don’t talk about it, because it makes us uncomfortable.”171 Considering the average Chinese person is still embedded in the conservative, patriarchal mindset, it is not farfetched to assume that at least those directly involved would shy away from the topic of relinquishing children and adoption, especially if it is a source of discomfort. In fact, a social worker in China told Xue Xinran

166 Johnson, China’s Hidden Children, 54. 167 “Adoption Trauma: The Damage to Relinquishing Mothers” 168 Xue and Harman, Messages from an Unknown Chinese Mother, 77. 169 See Ann Fessler, The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades before Roe v. Wade (New York: Penguin Press, 2007). 170 Ibid. 171 Ibid., 53. 30

that “I don’t know that I should tell you [about the reality behind China’s adoption system]. It’s

not something that’s ever talked about, it’s all past and gone now.”172 Obviously, in order to

conduct research, many scholars in the field conducted interviews with women and birth families

that were involved in sending their child to an orphanage; yet, most interviewees appeared to have

only shared their story under assurance that it would be anonymous. 173 Though, anonymous

participation does not mean that every woman was completely willing to share their story, nor that

the process of doing so was painless. As a woman interviewed by Xue expressed, “it’s not that we

[Chinese] don’t want to open up [about our memories] to other people, it’s because we can’t admit

them to ourselves.”174

Not only does discussing Chinese orphans with others risk creating a sense of discomfort,

but it can also cause the fear of losing mianzi. While it is typical in mainstream Chinese culture

for outsiders to not get involved and to turn a blind eye to abandoning or giving up children for

adoption, there is the fear of being discovered, and thus punished, by the government.175 If the government discovered that one exceeded the one-child (or two) quota that was emplaced by the

One-Child Policy, then trouble would result; officials could enter one’s house, remove all grains and do anything, including taking one’s child. As a result, Kay Bratt in her recording Silent Tears:

A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage realized that babies were often abandoned in random places, and basically never in front of a government building for the fear of being recognized.176

Birth families have often been forced to give up their child, and must do so through abandonment with vague or no clues as to who they are since China has no legal avenue to relinquish or place

172 Xue and Harman, Messages from an Unknown Chinese Mother, 105. 173 See Ibid. 174 Ibid., 127. 175 Ibid., 122. 176 Kay Bratt, Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage (Boston: Mariner Books, 2011), 147. 31

children into the adoption system.177 The lack of an established system would, reasonably, result

in a sense of worry that almost certainly contributes to discouraging involved families from discussing China’s adoption system and orphans, especially since their actions were unlawful and

could result in punishment of some sort.

The obsession with mianzi is felt at a personal level, as well as at a national level. Due to

the implication that transnational adoption takes place after a country has failed to support the

child, the country of origin gets looked upon negatively by outsiders, or even by its own citizens.178

In the blog “Seeing Americans Adopt Chinese Orphans,” Jin states that “generally speaking, only when a household is poor and not able to raise a child will they allow other people to adopt their child; similarly, only when a country has no alternative will they allow others to adopt their children.”179 As an outsider to the adoption triad, he is critical of his homeland, China, and feels

that it is truly a disgrace to send children abroad. The involvement of the Chinese government in

confiscating children or tricking parents into relinquishing their children for transnational adoption

can be viewed as further disgrace to the country by both citizens and foreigners, especially since

critics in the adoption field can label this inference as a tactic to fulfill the market demand for

healthy infants. Even though some Chinese citizens did not realize that their children would end up being sent abroad for adoption, they still fear that China will gain a bad reputation. As for domestic adoptive parents, discussing their involvement in the adoption triad could possibly alert their child that they were adopted, which is not necessarily something that all adoptive parents feel

177 Sara K. Dorow, Transnational Adoption: A Cultural Economy of Race, Gender, and Kinship (New York: New York University Press, 2006), 15. 178 Lily Rothman, “Donald Trump and a Controversial History of Russian Adoption,” Time, August 1, 2017, time.com/4868968/donald-trump-russia-adoption-history/ (accessed March 29, 2019). 179 Jiang Jin 金江, “Kan meiguoren lingyang zhongguo guer 看美国人领养中国孤儿” [Seeing Americans Adopt Chinese Orphans],” Huaxia Wenji ( 华夏文集), March 21, 2004, archives.cnd.org/HXWK/author/JIN-Jiang/kd040321- 5.gb.html (accessed May 10, 2018). 32

comfortable discussing. People, and governments, tend to be unwilling to converse about

something that they do not want to admit, or something that makes them or their country look bad.

Subsequently, it is understandable—given the context—that the Chinese government and people

involved are less likely to bring up the topic of adoption.

(3) Trend Shift and the Future of China’s Transnational Adoption Program

China played a significant part in transnational adoption. Its system, starting after the 1991

adoption law was passed, grew significantly, contributing numerous children each year. China’s peak year was 2005, a year later than the other countries participating in transnational adoption.180

Smolin estimates that there were approximately 14,500 adoptions globally with over half of those to the .181 Since then, there has been a steady declining rate of children being adopted

from China. By 2009, less than 6,000 children were adopted annually. What changes did China’s transnational adoption program undergo that shifted the transnational adoption trend so drastically?

What implications does this have for the future of the program?

Prior to the Duan family scandal in 2005, “more than 95% of adoptions were extremely young, healthy females.”182 After the scandal, the percentage of male, older, and special needs

children began to climb.183 In fact, recent adoptions from China show that “about a third of Chinese

adoptions into the US were for boys, and more than half have special needs.”184 The number of

children available for adoption has decreased since 2005, with demographics within this group of

children switching from healthy infants being more prominent to disabled children composing the

180 Smolin, “The Missing Girls of China,” 51. 181 Ibid. 182 Stuy, “Open Secret,” 394. 183 Ibid. 184 Ibid. 33

majority.185 This shift in the number of adoptions and children available for adoption may be

contributed to changes in China’s society and law.

By the mid-1990s when China’s transnational adoption system had already accelerated,

ultrasound machines had become readily available.186 Due to this technology, there was a sharp

increase in sex-selective abortions, causing China to legislate against “prenatal sex determination

in 1994.”187 Nonetheless, people were able to obtain an ultrasound illegally, no doubt affecting the

amount of children available for adoption by 2000. 188 Birth families, if able to receive an

ultrasound, would opt to abort a female infant rather than bring it to term if they were not able to

provide for it under the One-Child Policy. With China’s economy steadily growing in terms of its

share in global GDP, household incomes were increasing. 189 An increase in income should

decrease abandonments, while simultaneously increasing domestic adoption, both legal and illegal,

as orphans would no longer need to be sent abroad in order to be adopted.190 Additionally, the

adoption law changes enacted in 1999 fueled more parents to adopt domestically; the number of adoptions grew steadily from approximately 6,000 to upwards of 45,000 a year.191

Between the aforementioned reasons and international adoptive parents’ fear of the infant

possibly being obtained through illegal means due to the reported scandals, it is reasonable that

the transnational adoption system would decrease after 2005. Though, considering the program

was open for adoption after the scandals shows that adoptive parents were still willing to go to

China to adopt a child. Perhaps as a means to reassure those parents after the scandals that their

transnational adoption system was no longer corrupt, China implemented the Hague Convention

185 Smolin, “The Missing Girls of China,” 54. 186 Ibid., 56. 187 Ibid. 188 Ibid., 61. 189 Lin, Demystifying the Chinese Economy, 2. 190 Smolin, “The Missing Girls of China,” 58. 191 Ibid., 62. 34

on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (HCIA) in

2005.192 The HCIA was established as a safeguard to ensure “children’s rights and prevent illicit

financial gain in sending countries.”193 Moreover, China made “qualifications for prospective

adoptive parents significantly more restrictive” in 2007.194 While these restrictions reduced the

number of possible applicants, the wait time for those seeking to adopt a healthy baby increased,

likely from the lack of children satisfying the orphan description detailed in the adoption law.195

Children with special needs, however, were still available for adoption from China, explaining the shift in children that were available.

An adoption agency in 2008 claimed that “there are over 15 million orphans in China,” which is a relatively high statistic.196 Nonetheless, there is a lack of official statistics since 2010,

which makes it difficult to say what the trend of transnational adoption from China has become

and what it will be like in the future. Though, with the One-Child Policy having shifted to a Two-

Child Policy in 2015 and the possibility of the policy being withdrawn in the future given China’s

aging population, parents will have less of a reason to abandon an infant based on law restrictions

and the cultural preference for sons.197 This situation, in theory, will reduce the number of Chinese

orphans significantly; if this were to happen, the entire adoption system in China could downsize,

particularly as the system would likely need to solely rely on out-of-wedlock children and children

requiring special needs.198 Moreover, to reduce the mortality rate of such children, the government

192 Wang, Outsourced Children, 131. 193 Ibid. 194 Smolin, “The Missing Girls of China,” 51. 195 Ibid. 196 Stuy, “Open Secret,” 361. 197 Carrie Gracie, “China to End One-Child Policy and Allow Two,” BBC News, October 29, 2015, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34665539 (accessed March 27, 2019). 198 Life for people with special needs has improved since China’s doors were opened to outside influence under Deng Xiaoping’s reforms. However, the topic of disabilities is still not something openly discussed and can be viewed as shameful in rural areas as they are comparatively more conservative and traditional than urban areas. See Y Wang, 35

began a series of “baby hatches” in 2011, where desperate parents can legally relinquish their infants to state care.199

5. Conclusion

By researching and understanding the reasons behind the existence of Chinese orphans,

outsiders will be able to gain a bigger picture of China’s adoption system. Additionally, it would

help adoptive parents to, one day, explain to their adoptive child their origin, but do so in a way

that could possibly be less damaging to the child—it is not necessarily that their birth parents did

not want them, rather, their birth parents did not have a choice, but to give them up. This discussion

could potentially help Chinese adoptees by lowering the cultural barrier between them and China;

they would also then have the opportunity to explore their country of origin without feeling

completely disconnected. Furthermore, if this nationwide pain of China is acknowledged, then

forgiveness, or at least a mutual understanding between those involved in the adoption triad will

result. This forgiveness will allow China as a whole to hopefully heal, especially since the pain

will no longer be bottled up or ignored.

“A woman was like a pebble worn smooth and round by water and time. Our outward

appearance was changed by the fate meted out to us in our lives, but no water could alter the heart

of the woman and her maternal instincts,” said an unknown woman explaining how she was able

to cope with the loss of her child.200 For the past few decades, “the unwieldy combination of new

economic pressures, fertility regulations, and an enduring cultural preference for (healthy) sons

has motivated the abandonment of healthy rural girls and special needs youth” in China.201 The

“A Glance at People with Disabilities in China,” ChinaSource, March 7, 2016, https://www.chinasource.org/resource- library/articles/a-glance-at-people-with-disabilities-in-china (accessed March 27, 2019). 199 Wang, Outsourced Children, 39. 200 Xue and Harman, Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother, 4. 201 Wang, Outsourced Children, 30. 36

agony that birth mothers feel from being severed from their children is endless, and the pain and shame that China feels as a nation towards losing their children to foreigners is also immeasurable; it is a nationwide pain that was forged over decades, for which the country is still reckoning.

America, itself, was uncomfortable opening up and discussing its own history of forcing women

to relinquish children to adoption until the past couple of decades.202 Therefore, it is not shocking

that China, a country that (on average) is still very conservative and set in a traditional, patriarchal

mindset, is still uncomfortable discussing this topic. With such unburied pain—stemming from

outside pressure to relinquish children and unsanctioned confiscation of children—and the fear of

losing face on a national level, it is reasonable that China’s government and citizens involved habit

keeping their lips sealed, as well as be hesitant towards transnational adoption and “orphans” as a

conversation topic. Accordingly, it appears that discussing orphans and adoption goes against an

unspoken rule for many, making the topics sensitive or possibly taboo within Chinese society from

their perspective.

Considering the lack of statistics on Chinese adoption in the past decade, research for this

paper was limited, and thus, there is the potential to do further study in the future. Perhaps as more

Chinese people open up to discuss the “missing girls” phenomenon, more light can be shed on the

topic, including the concept of “lucky girl” that some Chinese people label adoptees. As China’s

adoption law adapts with the times and the changes in the One-Child Policy take effect, a new

perspective will also be added to this already complicated and sensitive topic, especially if the

baby hatches are utilized as a means for parents to avoid the stigma of having a child with special

needs.

202 See Fessler, The Girls Who Went Away. 37

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