Shanghaiist: The complicated issue of China's abandoned children

friend55

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:04:04 +0800

The USA does not recognize these informal adoptions, even if the adoptive parent uses her one child quota to obtain a legal birth certificate. My fiancee is an asylee and her young daughter has been living in a boarding school and USCIS will not allow her I-730. No DNA, no adoption certificate no dice, even though she has 1) an adoption certificate from the orphanage never filed because the girl's parents abandoned her to die in a freezing garbage can and having this information on her household register would lead to a lifetime of prejudice- no school, job, busband. 2) a legal birth certificate obtained by turning in her quota card at a hospital- she is not in violation of the "one child per family" policy that the USA only talks about. 3) complete household registers showing the girl's legal ID number and my fiancee's ID number together from birth. In the INS world, 5+5 does not equal 10. In short, the USA only talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. We will probably have to emigrate to Canada to reunite the family. It has been over four years now and we have been mailed our second deny letter- same illogical unfounded issues.

yu888

Wed, 28 May 2008 10:59:41 +0800

Wow, just came across this old post. Thanks Dan... As for why I registered early...I write what I think and do not say anything I would not say in the company of others. Those who know my comments in the autoworld as well as the shanghai expatriate community know this and I do not need to hide behind an anonymous id. The current ID has been my online moniker for over a decade and along teh way I ahave likely said some horrible crap...so be it, but the words were mine. So for those who suddenly stopped commenting b/c of the registration system, what are you afraid of? This is still a sad story and I stand by my earlier comments. It is easy for us to stand around a criticise. nanheyang writes some intense stuff that I do not always agree with, but if it spurs a change in the way at least some people think, to do something about it, then its all good. I respect the fact that he stands by his words and is consistant. I do not know, but probably nanheyyang is actually some really active member in the community and just vents his frustrations here, and if so, so be it. It seems his intentions are good despite sounding so critical. He is an easy target though, as I was since I am registered and take responsibility for my comments. But regarding the main topic, it is sad story and situation. But it seems things are changing a bit now though post-quake, as suddenly there are so many quake orphans. What is also coming out is the fact that the story above is the fault of the LOCAL authorities. The laws allow for many exceptions to the one-child and adpotion rules and it seems it is the local authorities, who have the authority to make these decisions, that are not budging. Maybe someone can follow up on this story and see what has happened since?

Dan Washburn

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:54:37 +0800

No. 21, Here is our initial announcement about the new commenting system. Basically, the old commenting system wasn't fine. Commenters received regular error messages — sometimes their comments would still show up, sometimes they wouldn't — and this resulted in many duplicate comments, that we had to go in and delete manually. One major reason for these errors was that the Gothamist servers (all the sites on the network share servers and content management systems) were constantly getting bombarded with SPAM comments. The new system has fixed all of those problems. I also hoped the new system would encourage commenters to claim ownership of their words, and I thought it might improve the overall quality of comments and debate on Shanghaiist. I still hope that will happen. I also think its nice for regular posters, readers and commenters to have profile pages that include all of their contributions to the site. Here is my profile page. Many of the bigger blogs and blog networks require some kind of registration now, and we are part of the biggest network of city blogs (in terms of readership) on the internet. So it was kind of inevitable. And we haven't received one SPAM comment since the new system was implemented — which means I haven't had to delete any, which makes me very happy. I hope readers will eventually get over their mistrust of the new system. Trust me, I have no interest in your personal info. It's really no different than signing up for a forum or any other site. Give it a try. Dan

guest

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:14:31 +0800

#19, this is an age old problem with seemingly no solution other than completely altering a culture's values and/or economic situation. For case studies on India and China, check this out: www dot gendercide dot org/case_infanticide.html There's tonnes of horrific studies of all kind of gender-based slaughters through history on that sight, including this one that I'm supposing no-one has ever heard of, even though it's in many ways on par with Mao's 'population achievements': www dot gendercide dot org/case_conscription.html ...scroll down to 'Nationalist China 1930s-1940s'. How many did the Japanese kill in comparison?

guest

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:06:44 +0800

...erm, that should be #18, not #17, sorry.

guest

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:06:07 +0800

#17, your comments about removing nan's free speech are offensive. Dan, please remove #17's comments... See where I'm going with this, #17? Dan, what was wrong with the previous system, it worked fine? The sudden registrationy thing may seem unneccesary to many users and personally I don't see why this blog should need an account system, no other blogs I use or read or randomly come across require registration, why this one, why now, why the sudden change? All these questions led me to some degree of mistrust of the motives of the new registrationy thing.

Dan Washburn

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:44:17 +0800

Guest No. 18, Sorry, can't do that. You know, free speech and all that. If you don't want to read his comments, here is an option for you: Click on the [HIDE GUEST COMMENTS] link at the top of this or any comments section. After doing this, you will only see comments left by registered users. Of course, you wouldn't be able to see your own comments, either, because you also didn't register. Registration takes seconds. You can still use whatever anonymous username you want. And we won't use your email addressnfor any purpose in the future. Just curious, is there a good reason why more people aren't registering? Is there some technical glitch I am not aware of that prohibits people from registering? Or do you think the registration process will take longer than it really does? Or do you just not trust us? Thanks, Dan

guest

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 13:55:28 +0800

#17 You are right about the situation regarding abandoned children even in developed countries. But you should understand that young girls in China face a life of prostitution and/or slave labor. Adopting them is a rescue mission.

guest

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:29:28 +0800

Dan Washburn, can you please delete the numerous offensive comments by the troll nanhey... They are polluting to this otherwise great site.

guest

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 20:37:36 +0800

We are one fortunate family, as our daughter is from China, now 5. She has 3 big brothers who she can outwit any day! It's a joy and an honor to have been granted the right to be an adoptive parent by both the US & the Chinese governments. We are all human, and none of us are perfect. China is restricting its population growth for China and for the rest of the world. Trust me, there are homes here in the US and accross Europe for each one of their abandoned babies, families who pine for more daughters/sons from China, but as fate would have it, this will never happen. A country with as many years behind it and people to govern will of course have issues. Let's not be too quick to judge - unless you have a solution, of course, or come from a perfect nation, with no issues of its own!?!?

guest

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:18:37 +0800

#11 and yu888: Criticism usually spawns solutions because those that are doing things wrong feel shamed into corrected things (or are replaced by more competent people). Except in China, because the skin is too thin. nanheyangrouchuan

guest

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:08:06 +0800

yu888, criticism and getting up of our arses to do something about it don't always go hand in hand. Aren't we allowed to criticise without getting off our arses, especially when there are roughly 1.3 billion people who should be doing something about it first, taking responsibility? And how many of those 1.3 billion give a shit and think abandoned babies is 'wrong' anyhow? I agree, solutions are better than just criticism. But we'd all need 500 versions of ourselves to do our bidding of trying to right every wrong we see. BTW, abandoned babies and infanticide are very common through world history, and still today.

guest

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:19:43 +0800

y888, and others talking about making change, The trouble remains that the very essence of the problem is government policy. And seeing the lack of a open diimocratic method to make change, citizens of china who are concerned about this problem have NO recourse for getting anything done. Until the one-child policy is abandoned along with the hukou registration, then this problem will stay. China is the only country in the world where you can be a citizen and still be an outsider, in every legal sense.

guest

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:32:10 +0800

who'd want one of them anyway?

guest

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 10:04:46 +0800

Great article. Just want to add that foreigners waiting to adopt an orphan are currently waiting 20 months. The wait is expected to reach at least three years. I am one of the thousands waiting for a child from China.

guest

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 05:28:51 +0800

to "nanheyangrouchuan" Yeah,yeah,yeah, you are the best. go back to suck your mom's nipples and never come to China.

guest

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 08:21:37 +0800

#8: Because China is bad, dirty, and rotten to the core. What a smelly junkyard of a country. Only able to steal, pollute and make cheap junk. nanheyangrouchuan

guest

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 01:28:34 +0800

there aren't many reasons not to...

guest

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:30:18 +0800

even discussing this proves you hate China

guest

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:39:47 +0800

A quick look at http://concordia.ciss.com.cn/concordnet/Community_Charity_Opportunities_China.htm shows ways to help. That required three seconds of Googling. Of course it's easier to rave about it on Shanghaiist than to actually do anything. yu888, who the heck registers to Shanghaiist?

guest

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:08:16 +0800

I would just like to say I thought the article was excellent!

guest

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:02:36 +0800

@ yu888 who says "most of us do not know HOW to help". Ummmm, perhaps by campaigning for adopted people to have the same rights as everyone else. (But to do that, you'd have to accept you are equal to the girls whose mothers chose to abandon them rather than throw them in the Yangtze.) You people are so proud of your race, willing to defend it, but very rarely stand up for it. You jump to attack a foreign company for exploiting or criticising your 5K culture, but when it's your own government policies you just have no balls.

yu888

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:18:01 +0800

Sad indeed. Easy to play armchair critic, but the reality is, most of us do not know HOW to help...not that many of the armchair critics would ever get off their perverbial asses to do look into how to do anything about this. New restrictions for foreign adoptions is probably a double edged sword as some adoptions were really being done more like cash transactions, according to several persons who have been involved in the process. Personally, I think the ends there of having orphans taken care of, albeit one at a time, justifies the means, even if I detest the concept of cash for babies. So, what CAN one do to try to make such a situation bettter for the innocent victims involved. THAT should be the FIRST discussion, both by the government, who obviously does not want to tackle a problem bigger than they are, and those of us standing on the sidelines. What can we do? Suggestions?

guest

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:52:00 +0800

Glad you're doing your part to help spur change, guest #2.

guest

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:16:17 +0800

"without an official adoption seal, Zhao is prohibited from a residence permit. The results are far-reaching:“she can't go to senior high school next year, go to college or find a job, or even get married..." I would be so ashamed if that was happening in my country. Sad and pathetic.

guest

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:20:24 +0800

5000 years of glorious history, wisdom and (supposed) technological achievement and this is the result. Babies tossed due to their gender and illegal aliens in their own country to boot. Where are all of those panda-lickers to come and along and tell us how China is the next superpower and will do a better job than the US? nanheyangrouchuan