Adoption in China | Daughter' s Return

Adoption in China

(Expected completion in December 2009)

Chinese children who are adopted internationally by families in the West represent only a small portion of all the orphans in China. Many more children remain in China: they either continue to stay in orphanages, or are adopted domestically by Chinese families. We are seeing more and more films and books about children benefited from international adoption, however, the lives of those children who remain in Chinese society are not well documented. The adoptive community in the West has expressed a strong interest in knowledge about the fates of the “peers” of the adopted children. To address this need, Dr. Changfu Chang and his team in China have embarked upon another major production, “Adoption in China,” which profiles several orphans in China by telling their unique stories and experiences.

While “Adoption in China” is still a work-in-progress with its final version a matter of numerous revisions, over the years, we have been following and/or covering several stories including: In Fuzhou, our crew videotapes the journey of a young woman who is determined to find her birth parents; In Nanchang, we document emotional and psychological challenges a couple faces of raising one adopted child and one biological child at the same time; In Jiangsu, we are there capturing on tape the moment a recent college graduate is told by her parents that she was adopted three days after her birth; In Shanxi, a poor farmer found a baby in a barren hill and, all by himself, raised the child, who years later, became a student at the elite Zhongshan University in Guangzhou; In Shandong, an orphanage is preparing a wedding for a young woman who has lived in the orphanage all her life and is going to enter the “real society and the world”; Finally, in the City of Kunming, a custodian who has found and raised nearly 20 abandoned children recounts his experiences in tracking down the children’s birth parents and his efforts to re-unite the children with their families.

Interlaced with the “unfolding” of these life stories are interviews with the adoptees, their adoptive parents as well as some birth parents.

“Adoption in China” is at the production phase and we continue to follow new story leads and to explore new issues. Your thoughts and suggestions on the production are welcome. You can email us at: changfu.chang@millersville.edu.