I recently watched a documentary called Somewhere Between about four girls from China who were adopted by
families in the U.S. The director and her husband adopted a girl from China and
she wanted to examine how her daughter’s development of identity would be
different from her own. Through four different stories the director hopes viewers
will “come to understand more fully the meaning of family and the ever
prevalent cultural disconnect between stereotyping and race.”
There were a few scenes that stuck out to me more than the
others. The first that struck a chord, was a scene in which one of the adoptive
mothers was in a beauty salon with her two Chinese-adopted daughters, and the
woman in the chair next to them told the girls, “Congratulations for getting to
come to America.”
The idea that they had escaped and were getting a better
life because they were adopted seemed like a perfectly rational reaction to
hearing that they had been adopted from China. The woman went on to ask if the
youngest daughter was happy that she was in America.
Another was the struggle the girls all had to define
themselves by the use of the terms Chinese and American. As one of the girls
said, “I am a child stuck between two countries.” She said she couldn’t call
herself Chinese American, but neither did she feel comfortable saying she was simply Chinese or
American.
The idea that they were white on the inside and Chinese on
the outside was expressed by multiple Chinese adoptees. Their avowed identity
is constantly being questioned by others who ascribe an Asian American identity
on them.
Martin and Nakayama (2012) looked at identity management in
their chapter on why people should study IIC. Identity management to them is “the
way individuals make sense of their multiple images concerning the sense of
self in different social contexts.” Each of the girls questioned whether or not
to go to China to meet their birth parents and those who did seemed to feel differently about their
identities as a result.
One of the questions raised in the beginning of the film is
whether or not international adoptions are a good or bad thing, and to add to
that, whether they should be done at all. How do you feel about international
adoptions and do you have a personal connection with someone who has been
adopted from another country? How do they deal with issues associated with
their multiple identities?
Here is the link to the film’s website. The trailer provides
a glimpse of what the film is all about.
If anyone is interested in seeing the film in its entirety, it is available at the DU library.
Thank you for sharing this. When I was in high school it appeared to become fashionable in my community to adopt children from South Korea and China. In terms of a family wanting to raise a child, and a child in need of a home it was a positive thing, however, there became a weird stigma around the children, as you mentioned the lady in the beauty parlor, this became the most commonplace outcome of the adoptions. I remember working as a lifeguard; the adoptive mothers would bring their children to the pool. They would be praised as saving this child, with the most heart wrenching comments aligning to the fact that their life in any other place would be inferior. I cannot imagine as a child hearing these comments. Later in college, I had a friend who was adopted from South Korea. She often shared with me her struggle to identify herself and all the ascripted roles she had to play in her upbringing. At 21, against her adoptive family’s will, she decided to go to South Korea to meet her birth parents. The outraged her family; they questioned her on where they went wrong; as if her wanting to understand herself through her past was a red mark against them. It was not about them at all. It is hard to watch a friend struggle with these issues and feel at a lost for a home. She feels as if she is not Korean and now her American family believes she is ‘ungrateful’ for what they have done.
ReplyDeleteA good friend of mine is adopted from South Korea. Her parents adopted her and her biological sister and have kept them highly connected to their home country. They were orphaned and are not aware of who their biological parents are, but have returned to South Korea several times and actually spent several summers with a host family in order to immerse in the culture as much as possible. She said it was important to her parents that feel connected to their heritage. My friend is fully aware that her life here in America is much better then it would have been if her and her sister were never adopted. In fact, she has had such a positive experience that her and her husband hope to adopt a child from South Korea to provide a child, what she felt she was provided. In situations such as these, I think international adoptions are fine. With the world becoming more global, and the concept of "Third Culture Kids" becoming more prevalent, multiple identities are becoming more common. These commonalities are uniting people, which is one way of helping someone cope with identity issues. If a child grows up with parents that encourage the discussion of these multiple identities, international adoption can be healthy. However, if parents decide to cut a child off and ignore an adopted child's culture, it seems that identity issues could turn to identity crisis.
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