|
CHINA> National
![]() |
|
From home to homeland, retracing roots
By Chen Jia,Cai Ke (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-18 07:40 Families in the United States account for a bulk of the adoptions, with about 70,000 joining American homes in the past decade. Spain follows with more than 10,000, while Canada has a similar number. The country's first adoption law in 1992 paved the way for adoption by foreigners. The authorities set up the CCAA in 1996, when it was given responsibility for adoptions by foreign and domestic families, as well as the care of children in social welfare institutions. "The government welcomes children adopted by foreign families to visit China and gain a better understanding of the culture of their birthplace," MCA Vice-Minister Dou Yupei said yesterday. "Thanks to the CCAA's invitation, our daughter enjoyed her first birthday celebration in China. We adopted her when she was just an 11-month-old baby," Cindy Anderson told China Daily. Chay Hai-tian Anderson, who was adopted by a couple from Philadelphia in 2000, celebrated her ninth birthday on Saturday in Beijing. The American couple have also been learning Chinese with Chay and brought her to China five times to help her "understand her culture and her roots better". Gemma V. Laarhoven and her daughter Milou, 8, traveled from the Netherlands to join the Yangzhou trip. "When we first had Milou, she was a bit afraid of my husband, because of his big build and blue eyes. Although she couldn't understand us initially, she could point to the candy jar and her mouth to communicate with us. She started speaking Dutch in just a few weeks," Laarhoven said. Li Juan, a professor at the institute of psychology affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said children less than three years old adapt more easily to foreign families. Children will seek the cultural identity within their memories when they realize that they live in a new environment with people who have a different outward appearance and language, she said. "Most of the Chinese children that the foreign families adopted are girls," Guo Jiamin, the assistant director of the Bridge of Love Adoption Service program at the CCAA, said yesterday. The number of girls abandoned in China is higher than boys, and Chinese families in the country prefer to adopt boys, he said. The families told China Daily the trip was just one of many ways the children stay in touch with the land of their birth. "My daughters will have a much better knowledge of China after this trip," Marleen Moffitt said. "And we will surely come back for more." |
邓州市| 庄浪县| 专栏| 静安区| 万荣县| 竹北市| 三江| 三亚市| 太和县| 灵寿县| 安塞县| 广州市| 当涂县| 两当县| 商丘市| 禄劝| 巴南区| 桦甸市| 文化| 方城县| 琼中| 遂平县| 巴马| 孝感市| 吴忠市| 金寨县| 越西县| 克山县| 临澧县| 沙湾县| 池州市| 隆安县| 棋牌| 泰宁县| 大方县| 黎城县| 涡阳县| 阳朔县| 弥渡县| 东乡| 襄汾县|