The Lost Daughters of China: Abandoned Girls, Their Journey to America, and the Search for a Missing Past [Paperback]

Karin Evans (Author)

Book Description

"This book calls attention to the pressing issues of abandoned baby girls in China, the result of a combination of historical and cultural prejudices against women and the current draconian, one-child policy. The Lost Daughters of China is an evocative memoir that will not only attract parents or would-be parents of Chinese baby girls but will touch the hearts of us all." (Chicago Tribune)

Proclaimed an instant classic upon its hardcover publication, The Lost Daughters of China is at once compelling and informative. Journalist Karin Evans tells the story of adopting her daughter, Kelly, who was once one of the hundreds of thousands of infant girls who wait for parents in orphanages all over China. Weaving her personal account with extensive research, Evans investigates the conditions that have led to generations of abandoned Chinese girls and a legacy of lost women.

With a new epilogue added for the paperback edition, this book will appeal to anyone interested in China and in the emotional ties that connect people regardless of genes or culture. In the words of bestselling novelist Amy Tan, The Lost Daughters of China is "not only an evocative memoir on East-West adoption but also a bridge to East-West understanding of human rights in China."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Lost Daughters of China is that rare book that can be many things to different people. Part memoir, part travelogue, part East-West cultural commentary, and part adoption how-to, Karin Evans's book is greater than the sum of its parts. Evans weaves together her experience of adopting a Chinese infant with observations about Chinese women's history and that country's restrictive, if unevenly enforced, reproductive policies. She and her husband adopted Kelly Xiao Yu in 1997, and anyone curious about adopting from a Chinese orphanage--which houses girls and disabled boys--will learn about the mechanics and the emotional freight of the two-year process. Borrowing an image from Chinese folklore, Evans conveys herself, her husband, and their daughter as tethered by a red string that yoked them across an ocean and an equally awesome cultural divide.

The elegant prose is spiced with bits of ironic cultural dissonance. A discount shopper, Evans "felt more than a little strange buying China-made [baby] clothes with which to bundle up a tiny baby, one of China's own, and bring her home." On a bus tour through southern China, she is one of a "bunch of Americans with Chinese infants singing 'Que Sera Sera' in the middle of a sea of traffic. Will she be happy? Will she be rich?" To suddenly hear Doris Day over the horns of a Kowloon traffic jam is heady stuff indeed.

The Lost Daughters of China is at its best when describing Evans's tally of emotional loss and gain. At one point the bureaucratic adoption process is unaccountably delayed, but her father dies during that time and she's able to sit by his bedside. The most mysterious example of this emotional calculus is Kelly's birth mother. Evans invents many plausible scenarios that caused this unknown woman to abandon her three-month-old daughter at a market. These incomplete, necessarily provisional stories help give a face to the larger cultural processes that compel new parents to abandon 1.7 million girl babies annually. The stuff of headlines--human rights, infanticide, rural and urban poverty--is rendered personally relevant in Evans's compelling book. --Kathi Inman Berens --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

After a 22-month-long adoptive "pregnancy" filled with heaps of paperwork, a U.S.-China liaison rang Evans and her husband one October evening in 1997 to say, "You have a daughter." According to her Chinese documents, the little girl was "found forsaken." While it is illegal to abandon babies in China, Evans reports that the number of "lost girls" is frighteningly high: "Babies, female babies, it seemed, were found everywhere, every day." Currently more than 18,000 Chinese-born children, predominantly girls, have been adopted by Americans. Evans's first trip to mainland China included the brief whirl of bureaucratic negotiations, sightseeing and eating in restaurants, leading up to her introduction to Kelly Xiao Yu, her year-old adopted daughter. Yet in the author's effort to understand the forces that shaped her daughter's situation, her lack of familiarity with China results in a heavy dependence on such sources as the writings of Confucius and Jasper Becker's 1997 book, Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine--and few fresh insights. Evans shines, however, when depicting her new daughter's immediate affection for her and, following their return to the U.S., for the family dog and Harley Davidson motorcycles. In these lovingly wrought sections, devoted to exploring the mysterious process of adoption itself and Evans's quick fall into love with her newly "found" daughter, her narrative is both perceptive and moving. Agent, Barbara Moulton. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher (September 27, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585421170
• ISBN-13: 978-1585421176
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #382,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for Parents of Children From China, June 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Lost Daughters of China: Abandoned Girls, Their Journey to America, and Their Searchfor a Missing Past (Hardcover)

Those of us who are fortunate enough to raise a Chinese child must read this well-written book. There are scads of adoption books that tell one how to adopt a child, or the story of a particular adoption journey. This title includes that information but adds important data not included in other adoption books.

Using scholarly and other reliable print resources, the author presents an accurate (as far as we in the West know) description of WHY Chinese girls are abandoned in such great numbers. She outlines the horrifying reasons behind the one-child policy in China, discusses how the law is enforced or not enforced in various Chinese regions, and the cultural preference for boys. More importantly, the book includes some information on the grief felt by those parents forced to abandon a daughter.

When our daughters from China are older, they will almost certainly want to know why they were abandoned. This title cannot speak to all individual circumstances, but it certainly clearly explains the social, demographic and economic pressures that force child abandonment.

N.B. the author takes pains to outline why, in China, abandonment is an adoption plan.

42 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evans Has Done a Tremendous Service by Writing this Book, May 8, 2001

By 

Xoe Li Lu "xoelilu" (Sea Girt, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Lost Daughters of China: Abandoned Girls, Their Journey to America, and Their Searchfor a Missing Past (Hardcover)

Karin Evans has done a great service by writing this book. While it is an invaluable resource to present and future adoptive parents of Chinese children, it is also an important reminder for everyone of the situation in China that has lead to the abandonment of countless baby girls.

Evan's story is tremendously moving, although she never resorts to gimmicky heartstring pulling. She tells the barefaced truth about Chinese adoption, complete with the anxiety, frustration, confusion and utter joy that accompanies the process. She also very intelligently outlines the underlying factors that enable Americans to adopt Chinese babies in the first place. While never accusing or pointing a finger, she thoughtfully presents well-researched information about China's one-child policy and the cultural preference for male children, and discusses government attempts to curb population. She explores the anguish experienced by Chinese birth parents who must give up their children in hope of giving them a better life, and she is respectful of the painful decisions these parents are forced to make. In addition, Anchee Min's brief preface is haunting. Lost Daughters of China is not only for those considering Chinese adoption, but for anyone interested in child welfare and/or Chinese social policy.

29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Many books will tell you "How." This one tells you "Why.", September 28, 2000

By 

Constant Librarian "constantlibrarian" (Columbia, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lost Daughters of China: Abandoned Girls, Their Journey to America, and Their Searchfor a Missing Past (Hardcover)

I do not give five star ratings lightly. This book is a gem. As other reviewers have mentioned, this book is part Chinese adoption "how to" and part travel diary. Both those sections are admirably done, but I treasure this book because Karen Evans presents a succinct summary of the causative factors of child abandonment in China.

I would strongly recommend that anyone who has adopted from China or may adopt in the future read this book, for the sake of your daughter. Ideally, adopted children should have some contact with their biological parents. This isn't possible for our Chinese daughters. They will almost definitely want to know why they were abandoned. Evan's book explains the subordinate position of women in Chinese society, the factors that drive the need of Chinese parents for a son, and the origins of the one-child policy and how it works (or doesn't work.)

In addition, _Lost Daughters of China_ will educate anyone with an interest in the status of women in the world.