Adoption from China

My sweet niece is such a joy. My brother and sister-in-law are blessed to have adopted her from China. Children change your life forever, for the better. They make you see things in a whole different light.

I’ve been thinking about my Chinese niece growing up American and wondering how she’ll feel about her connections to China as she approaches adulthood. In fact, I want my own children to appreciate not only the country they live in now but also their Vietnamese heritage.

Recently, a friend sent me an article about how the first wave of adopted Chinese children in America are now young adults seeking their identities. The article talked about how these children have been raised. Some of their white parents incorporated things relating to their Chinese culture into their lives, such as Chinese dance lessons. The adopted Chinese girls who live in larger cities where they were exposed to many cultures seem to embrace their Chinese identity, while the ones raised in a more "white" community don’t. They have been more likely to just want to fit in with their white counterparts.

I can completely relate to this! When we came to the United States, we moved to a town with a very small Vietnamese community. Other than my cousins, I was not exposed to Vietnamese people on a daily basis. We went to ESL school in the summer in order to learn English. We were told by the instructors that if we wanted to speak excellent English, we needed to use it all the time, so we did. In doing that, we abandoned our mother language. I am embarrassed to say that I can no longer speak Vietnamese fluently. Like many kids, we just wanted to fit in. My brother and I often spoke about this - we thought we were white kids. I don't think we fully appreciated our cultural identity until we went away to college.

As I got older, I came to appreciate my culture more, especially after my recent trip to Vietnam. In light of my experience, I am trying to teach my children about my Vietnamese culture and traditions. I don’t want my children to lose their cultural identity. I want my children to be proud and knowledgeable about their entire identity, to be able to appreciate their heritage as they grow up.