Faculty Publications

"It Was Like This, I Think": Constructing An Adoption Narrative For Chinese Adopted Children

Document Type

Article

Keywords

adoption story, birth parents, Chinese adoptees, identity, narrative and counternarrative

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Adoption Quarterly

Volume

15

Issue

3

First Page

157

Last Page

184

Abstract

Using qualitative survey data from 35 adoptive parents of children from China, I explore the type of narrative parents construct about their child's "abandonment." Parents tell the story they know best-the child's adoption story-being careful to not overly burden the child with harsh abandonment realities. Most parents opt to tell a dominant narrative, portraying the child's Chinese birth parents as parents who loved their child and struggled with the decision to give up their child pressured by outside forces to do so. Any counternarrative told seems to be for the adoptive parents themselves, not for their children. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Department

Department of Communication Studies

Original Publication Date

7-1-2012

DOI of published version

10.1080/10926755.2012.698404

Link to Full Text

Comments?

Share

COinS