Every year, approximately 5000 children from China are adopted into the United States. Beginning in the 1990s China replaced South Korea as the leading sending country of Asian adopted children to the United States. In 1992, the Chinese government passed laws enabling foreigners to adopt Chinese children. There is no doubt that international adoption is changing the landscape of American life. Learning from the experiences of older Korean and Vietnamese adoptees, international adoptive parents, especially those adopting from China, actively seek to include more of the culture of the child’s birth country as part of family life.
Acknowledgements:
Ruben and Hyunju Chapellhine, Ying Ying Fry, Amy Klatzkin, Terry Fry, and fellow adoptees Maya, Zaji, Meili, Yang, Maggie and Kam.