There is a great article in a recent issue of Mother Jones magazine that gives voice to several Korean adoptees. "In Their Own Words" features Korean adoptees recounting their experiences reuniting with their birth families in Korea. The adoptees address such issues as culture shock, birth names, and the emotional toll of a reunion. Two of the Korean adoptees featured in the article, Susan Soon Keum Cox and Hollee McGinnis, have also shared their personal and professional views on adoption in "Adopted: The New American Family."

Everyone at "Adopted" would love to hear your stories about the search for your birth parents. Feel free to share your experiences in the space below.

Both Harlow’s Monkey and Racialicious have recently posted about Daddy and I, a photo exhibit by O. Zhang. In it, adopted Chinese girls pose with their white adoptive fathers. The series has generated much publicity, mostly centered around the uncomfortable feeling many have gotten looking at the photos. Some of the photos depict the young girls, often in traditional Chinese dress, in vaguely inappropriate positions with their fathers.

Why do these pictures make us so uneasy? If it were white adopted children with their white daughters, would we feel so uncomfortable? Or are these fathers in inappropriate positions with their daughters, regardless of race?

Furthermore, what is the artist’s role in all of this? In his director’s statement, Zhang poses the question "as the girls grow up, will they remain innocent adoptees under the tutelage of their Western patriarchs?" Did he position the fathers and daughters in deliberate situations to symbolize this question?

If art is meant to generate discussion, then this exhibit surely has accomplished its goal.

For the past year, we have followed John and Jacqui on their journey to adopt a daughter from China. We watched as they waited for their referral, traveled to China, and eventually brought home little Roma. A few weeks ago, we wrapped up shooting their part of the story. Below, Jacqui discusses saying goodbye to the producers and the film crew in her blog.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

An end of an era within our journey to Roma

This past weekend was the tearful goodbyes to the producers and the film crew that have been following us on our journey to Roma. We responded to a request they posted on the FCC newsletter at about this time last year from:
http://www.pointmade.com/index.html

They were looking for a couple that was close to picking up their child from China. Well, last year we really thought we were within months of getting our referral. This journey lasted longer than anyone anticipated. They are done filming us and plan to release the film this fall.

It has been a blessing that they have been involved in our journey. During the interviews, they asked some very difficult questions which then got us learning more on the myriad issues surrounding international and interracial adoption.

I have to thank you, Barb and Nancy, for opening my eyes and I hope to be a better mom because of your passion for this documentary.

If anyone would like to see more on the documentary, go on and visit their blog over at: www.adoptedthemovie.com

There has recently been a huge development in Korean family law, with the potential to change some of the social aspects of Korean society. Read this article from The Korea Herald and tell us what you think:

The Korea Herald

June 6, 2007

Since monarchical rule centuries ago, Koreans have lived under the patriarchal "hoju" or family head system. Family registers have been compiled on the basis of the father-to-first son lineage and daughters and younger sons are separated from the family line upon marriage.

These documents, called "hojeok," which record marriages, births, deaths, adoptions and divorces taking place in the family have defined every citizen’s origin and status in this homogenous, male-dominated society. Beginning on Jan.1, 2008, hojeok will no longer be in public use, replaced by "individual family records."

By the end of the year, government computers will rearrange hojeok data under individual entries so each item will contain the names of the nuclear family plus those of the couple’s parents only. A more important change will be that a new couple can decide to give their future offspring the mother’s family name and specify so upon their marriage registration. A woman can change the name of her children from her previous marriage to that of her present husband. Adopted children are to be given exactly the same rights as children from the marriage.

All these changes mean a departure from the tradition of the rigid family head system and also reflect a significant rise in the legal status of women under a new family law enacted in accordance with a Constitutional Court decision in 2005. The top court nullified the Civil Code provision that children should take their father’s family name in response to a petition from a coalition of some 130 feminist organizations.

For decades, women’s rights advocates had fought for the abolition of the "hoju" system which they determined as the fundamental device being used to keep women under male dominance. First, they attaned the goal of equal rights between male and female children in property inheritance, and then they campaigned against the male family head system. Protests from traditionalists, including Confucian scholars, were strong, but they could not resist the changes in social concepts for too long.

A full 50 years have passed since the Legal Aid Center for Women started the campaign for family law revision, and the women’s movement in Korea has arrived at a milestone with the establishment of the new family registration system, including flexibility in naming children. Feminist endeavors to remove discriminatory legal provisions and public systems can be encouraged in the days ahead with the voices of women rising in various walks of life, particularly in the legal professions and political arena.

Yet, now is also time for the leaders of women’s groups to take a fresh look at the goals of their movements. The peculiar situation in Korea requires women to exert their social improvement efforts in two directions: they need to continue to fight against disadvantages in the workplace, in pay, promotions, and assignments on one hand, while, on the other, they should play a more active role in protecting family values in our homes, which are being threatened by steep changes in social trends as seen in a low birthrate, a high divorce rate and even the rising incidence of suicide, all registering record numbers by global standards.

Women still are definitely the weaker side in society, but mothers are also the strongest members of families. As changes in laws and systems reduce impediments to their activities, they are entrusted with better care for their families through the right education of children and good management of homes.

Dr. Joseph Crumbley, a therapist specializing in adoptive families, discusses the importance of talking about race with your internationally adopted child.

We recently had a chance to sit down with Dr. Richard Lee of the University of Minnesota. Dr. Lee specializes in Asian American studies, specifically the cultural socialization of Korean adoptees. Below, he discusses the loss of birth culture in internationally adopted children.

A doctoral student at the University of New England in Australia is looking for Korean adoptees living in Australia to fill out a quick, 10-minute survey on racial discrimination in Australia. If you’re interested in taking the survey, click here.  

A recent article by South Korea’s official news agency discusses an adoptive father’s campaign to help unwed mothers in South Korea. Dr. Richard Boas, who adopted his daughter from South Korea almost twenty years ago, was one of the co-founders of a program in Connecticut that helped others adopt internationally. However, after traveling to South Korea and seeing perfectly capable single mothers giving their kids up for adoption, Boas has a change of heart.

When I met the moms, I started asking myself questions that the other Americans weren’t asking." Boas said. "Why would these moms give up their babies? Isn’t it the right of any birth mom anywhere in the world to bring up her child if she’s capable and loving? Why are these kids not being absorbed into Korean society, either by their birthparents or by domestic adoption?" The rate at which unwed mothers relinquish their children in South Korea, estimated at 70 percent, comes as a shock to Americans, where fewer than 2 percent of unwed mothers relinquish their children for adoption.

After meeting healthy and seemingly capable Korean unmarried mothers, who were nonetheless sending their children overseas for adoption, Boas wondered, "Why am I favoring so much international adoption when it doesn’t need to be necessary? This is like the tail wagging the dog."

Upon his return, Boas decided to fund Give 2 Asia, an organization that supports single and unwed mothers’ homes in South Korea. He believes that "Koreans have a golden opportunity to really evolve and do so well by these kids and their mothers. I think when you really come down to it, the economic price and the social price is relatively small. I think it’s much smaller than the price that everybody is paying now."

A term often used to refer to adoptees is "lucky." Adoptees are lucky because they have been "rescued" from a bad situation and placed into a better one. Below, Dr. Amanda Baden discusses the consequences of using this term and what effect it has on adoptees.

“Adopted: The New American Family” follows Jen, an adult Korean adoptee, as she confronts issues of race and identity. In the video clip below, Jen has frank discussions with her parents about being teased as a child because of her race. Watch the video and tell us about your experiences with your child’s racial identity. Or if you’re an adoptee, let us know what it was like to grow up confronting racism and how you discussed your feelings with your parents.