Starting with questions about how to incorporate Chinese culture and custom into the lives of their adopted daughters Emily and Claire, the authors began a year-long search for answers. The result is a detailed examination of the post-adoptive views, actions, and experiences of a national sample of families with children from China toward acknowledging their adopted child's Chinese cultural-heritage and the issues they face together as a multicultural family. Historical and present-day issues affecting intercountry adoptees and their families, such as arguments used to support or oppose intercountry and transracial adoption, developmental delay and the effects of institutionalization on Chinese adoptees, parent-child attachment, discrimination and racial prejudice, and identity development, are detailed. Parents' beliefs and experiences on these issues are supplemented by a multi-disciplined, comprehensive review of available literature.
While occasionally relying on personal experiences, this book is not about the authors' personal adoption story and parenting experiences. Rather, the focus is on common experiences and reactions of adoptive families who were, for the most part, firmly ensconced in the cultural mainstream but now find themselves viewed differently by society; these parents find that issues of culture, race, and ethnicity have become an important part of their everyday lives. Adoption scholars and professionals, as well as adoptive parents, will benefit from reading Intercountry Adoption from China.
