China Ghosts: My Daughter's Journey to America, My Passage to Fatherhood [Paperback]

Jeff Gammage (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 24, 2008

Aching to expand from a couple to a family, Jeff Gammage—a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer—and his wife, Christine, embarked upon a journey that would carry them across a shifting landscape of emotion and through miles of red tape and bureaucratic protocol. On the other side of the world—in the smog-choked city of Changsha in Hunan Province—a silent, stoic little girl was waiting for them: Jin Yu, their new daughter. Now they would have to learn how to fully embrace a life altered beyond recognition by new concerns and responsibilities—and by a love unlike any they'd ever felt before.

Alive with insight and feeling, China Ghosts is an eye-opening depiction of the foreign adoption process and a remarkable glimpse into a different culture. Most important, it is a poignant, heartfelt, and intensely intimate chronicle of the making of a family.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As more Americans adopt Chinese children, the bookshelves fill with firsthand accounts of their experiences. Perhaps because many adoptions are preceded by infertility issues, most of these memoirs are written by women. So this, a father's account of going to China with his wife to adopt their first and second daughters, is particularly useful. Gammage, a staff writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, had been happily married without children for many years, although he knew his wife really wanted children. By the time they discovered they couldn't have biological children, the best option was adopting from China. While there were tensions over their first daughter's medical problems (an infected scalp injury), both adoptions went reasonably smoothly. Back home, Gammage wrestled with his mixed feelings about the birth parents and his burden of good fortune, that guilty knowledge that his own happiness came from someone else's misfortune. Realizing that his own relationship to China was being shaped by the process of raising two Chinese girls, he ends this upbeat memoir by wondering about the impact of this new wave of immigrants on the future of Sino-American relations.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

In 1980, China's population and limited resources prompted the imposition of a one-child policy in an attempt to circumvent famine and improve its standard of living. This policy, along with a demand for sons, has prompted the rise of numerous orphanages whose inhabitants are predominantly female. What is a social problem for China is a boon for couples in the U.S. who are looking to adopt. In 2006, 6,493 children were adopted from China. Gammage, a journalist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, went to Changsha to adopt Jin Yu. His moving story of that adoption is an emotional account of a father's love for his daughter. Gammage writes, "Having a child enables you to imagine every child as your own." He finds it a revelation how much he loves her but is full of contradictory emotions regarding her origins: angry that she was abandoned as an infant and had to suffer her first two years in a Chinese orphanage, but grateful to China for granting him such a wonderful daughter. He views Chinese adoption as "a place where elation is paired with regret and hope stands as companion to sorrow." Segedin, Ben
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (June 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061240303
• ISBN-13: 978-0061240300
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #865,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sensitive and well written, July 12, 2007

By 

Sharon M. O'Neal (Lambertville, N.J. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: China Ghosts: My Daughter's Journey to America, My Passage to Fatherhood (Hardcover)

Although I'm not yet a parent myself, Jeff Gammage's memoir of adopting his daughters from China moved me to think that having a child, whether a biological one or an adopted one, is an experience I really don't want to miss. It was especially refreshing to hear a story like this told from the dad's point of view --- a perspective we don't often hear. As a former coworker of Jeff's at the Philadelphia Inquirer, I recognized and appreciated the thoughtful and sensitive approach he brings to every subject he reports. The details of his trip to adopt Jin Yu are dramatic and touching. I liked the fact that Jeff and his wife recognized the loss their daughter experienced and decided to keep her name instead of giving her an Americanized one --- after all, as he's said, it's the one thing she didn't have to give up in leaving China.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply touching and revealing, July 9, 2007

By 

Julie A. Elkes "Motherhood@48" (Bloomington, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: China Ghosts: My Daughter's Journey to America, My Passage to Fatherhood (Hardcover)

As the adoptive mom of a Chinese daughter, I have read numerous stories written by the adoptive parents of Chinese girls. This is the one that stood out for me... Jeff Gammage writes so well the thoughts and feelings of a parent who has to deal with so many issues when adopting a child... and the complications that come with adopting a child from China.

If you are considering adoption, know that not all China adoptions are like this one, and yet, all China adoptions will have some, if not most, of the feelings, thoughts and issues one will deal with as Jeff documented. If you've been there done that - you will find yourself in this book. And if you just want to know more about China adoptions, I would recommend this book as a must read.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Amazing, August 6, 2007

By 

S. Hogan (Orange County, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: China Ghosts: My Daughter's Journey to America, My Passage to Fatherhood (Hardcover)

I devoured this book after someone on an adoption Yahoo Group recommended it and I heard the author on NPR. I have to say it's absolutely amazing. Jeff has extraordinary insight and he pulls no punches. He vividly describes both his incredible love for his daughter and his guilt and anger that she had to stay in an orphanage for 2 years before he could get her. He explores the contradiction between being eternally grateful to a country for allowing him to have his daughter, and being angry with the country whose policies forced his daughter to end up in an orphanage in the first place.

This is an incredibly moving book and is impossible to put down. China Ghosts will leave you touched and inspired.