View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by D-Scholarship@Pitt TRACING THE RED THREAD: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF CHINESE-U.S. TRANSNATIONAL ADOPTION by Frayda Cohen B.A., New York University, 1996 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2007 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Arts and Sciences This dissertation was presented by Frayda Cohen It was defended on March 23, 2007 and approved by Dr. Joseph Alter, Chair, Department of Anthropology Dr. Harry Sanabria, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology Dr. Wenfang Tang, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Nicole Constable, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies of Research, Professor, Department of Anthropology ii Copyright © by Frayda Cohen 2007 iii TRACING THE RED THREAD: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF CHINESE-U.S. TRANSNATIONAL ADOPTION Frayda Cohen, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2007 The 1990s witnessed a sudden, dramatic increase in the number of adoptions of Chinese children, 95% of whom are girls, by U.S. parents. Currently, more foreign-born children are adopted from China than any other country. These adoptions, the resulting gendered migration from China to the United States and the children who remain in Chinese social welfare institutes, serve as the basis for this research. This dissertation is based on nearly three years of multi-sited ethnographic research. Initially, I conducted fieldwork with parents and staff in adoption agencies and support groups in Pittsburgh. Subsequently, I accompanied a group of parents on their adoption trip to China. Finally, I conducted research in China; this phase involved extensive participant observation with volunteer groups, in local hospitals, and with international aid organizations that are working with Chinese social welfare institutes and providing funding and medical care to resident children. As a volunteer for these groups, I worked in a variety of sites in both Northern and Southern China (Beijing, Tianjin, Henan Province, and Guangzhou) that illustrated important regional differences. In China, red threads, in wall-hangings and ornaments, have distinctly auspicious meanings and are quite literally woven throughout the fabric of Chinese daily life and rituals. This imagery has become central to the U.S. community of families with children from China. However, the complex and shifting meanings associated with this imagery as it migrates from iv China to the United States through the process of adoption are not readily apparent and key questions arise. How did U.S. adopting parents come to know this story? How is the folklore associated with the red thread used by adoption agencies and others to advertise and promote adoption? How does the red thread come to represent bonds between adopting parent and child and also between adoption communities in the U.S. and China? In answering these questions, I explore three key aspects of the transnational adoption process: 1) adoptive families and cultural identity; 2) gender, race and citizenship; and 3) adoption and labor in China. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ X 1.0 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 WHAT IS TRANSNATIONAL ADOPTION? ................................................. 1 1.2 A BRIEF HISTORY OF INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION............................. 3 1.3 THE CHINESE SIDE.......................................................................................... 5 1.4 FIELDWORK AND METHODOLOGY .......................................................... 8 1.5 THEORETICAL OVERVIEW........................................................................ 11 1.5.1 Kinship and the Family: The Enduring Relevance of Kinship Studies . 12 1.5.2 Reproduction and the State: Conceptions of Modernity......................... 17 1.5.3 Transnationalism and Identity: The Global and the Local .................... 23 1.6 CHAPTER OVERVIEW .................................................................................. 27 1.6.1 Adoptive Families and Cultural Identity................................................. 27 1.6.2 Gender, Race and Citizenship ................................................................... 28 1.6.3 Adoption and Labor in China.................................................................... 29 1.7 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 30 2.0 BUILDING FAMILIES HALFWAY AROUND THE WORLD .......................... 32 2.1 OVERVIEW....................................................................................................... 32 2.2 BACKGROUND: U.S. PARENTS AND ADOPTION TRAVEL................. 35 vi 2.3 LEGISLATIVE CHANGES…………………………………………………..37 2.4 THE BIRTH OF A FAMILY: HOW DO I IMAGINE ADOPTION? ......... 41 2.5 TRAVELING ..................................................................................................... 45 2.6 CHINESE PERCEPTIONS: “XINGFU!” ...................................................... 46 2.7 NEGOTIATING SPACE AND THE REPRODUCTION OF CULTURE: HOW WILL MY FAMILY RELATE TO CHINA?....................................................... 48 2.8 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 52 3.0 VIRTUALLY CHINESE........................................................................................... 54 3.1 OVERVIEW....................................................................................................... 54 3.2 THE SCATTERING OF SEEDS: TRANSNATIONALISM, DIASPORA AND “CHINESENESS” .................................................................................................... 55 3.3 THE KOREAN MODEL .................................................................................. 59 3.4 FAMILY SUPPORT GROUPS & CULTURAL IDENTITY ....................... 63 3.5 PURCHASING “NORMAL” ........................................................................... 69 3.6 LOST DAUGHTERS – “FOUND” .................................................................. 72 3.7 VIRTUAL SPACE............................................................................................. 75 3.8 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 78 4.0 INTERSECTING CHILDHOODS: GENDER, RACE AND CITIZENSHIP..... 81 4.1 BACKGROUND................................................................................................ 83 4.2 CHINESE-U.S. MIGRATION: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE............. 85 4.3 CHINESE FEMININITIES.............................................................................. 89 4.4 CHINA “DOLLS” AND “LOST DAUGHTERS”: PACKAGING FEMININITY (U.S. IMAGES) ......................................................................................... 90 vii 4.5 “LOST SONS” ................................................................................................... 97 4.6 SONS, DAUGHTERS AND THE CHANGING VALUE OF CHILDREN100 4.7 CONTEMPORARY U.S. AFRICAN-AMERICAN ADOPTEES .............. 106 4.8 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 108 5.0 SAVING CHILDREN BODY AND SOUL ........................................................... 110 5.1 SALVATION NARRATIVES ........................................................................ 112 5.2 “ORPHAN” RELIEF NGOS IN CHINA – WHO ARE THEY?................ 113 5.3 FANGJIAN....................................................................................................... 128 5.4 AEHF – AMERICAN EDUCATION AND HEALTH FOUNDATION .... 131 5.5 BY ANY OTHER NAME ............................................................................... 137 5.6 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 141 6.0 LABOR OR LOVE .................................................................................................. 143 6.1 GLOBAL CARE WORK: AN OVERVIEW................................................ 149 6.2 MATERIAL CONDITIONS OF SOCIAL WELFARE INSTITUTES .... 152 6.3 A TALE OF TWO SWIS ................................................................................ 154 6.4 CHINESE SWI WORKERS: TO LABOR OR LOVE?.............................. 158 6.5 EXCHANGING CHILDREN......................................................................... 165 6.6 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 168 7.0 CONCLUSION......................................................................................................... 170 7.1 AFTERWORD................................................................................................. 170 7.2 CONSPICUOUS FAMILIES AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCE ............. 173 7.3 ASIAN FEMININITY..................................................................................... 175 7.4 RACED IMAGES............................................................................................ 176 viii 7.5 INTERSECTIONS .......................................................................................... 178 7.6 SALVATION...................................................................................................