In connecting Chinese adoptees to birth families, couple makes discovery about China's one-child policy
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
When Brian Stuy adopted his oldest daughter from an orphanage in China in 1998, his decision stemmed from a sincere belief that there was a humanitarian need, he said.
He believed that kids were being abandoned on the side of the street and that Chinese orphanages were full of children. But when he later learned that those things weren't true in the majority of cases, that discovery was a huge betrayal, he said.
In researching the origins of his oldest daughter, adopted in 1998, Stuy learned that children at Chinese orphanages often weren’t actually unwanted or abandoned. China’s controversial one-child policy and preference for boys led many families to relinquish their infant daughters in public spaces in hopes that another family would adopt them.
The policy also created a trafficking market in China, Stuy said, particularly after the country began its international adoption program: It costs up to $25,000 to adopt a child.
“I still love the fact that I have my kids, don’t get me wrong there,” Stuy said. “But it does change the way you view the need for me to have participated in international adoption.”
Stuy and his wife, Longlan Stuy, went on to establish an information service in 2003, research-china.org, to help connect adoptees to their birth families. He augmented those efforts in 2013 when he established DNA Connect, which collects DNA from more than 400 families and has matched 63, Stuy said.
The couple's work and findings have been featured in a number of publications and are highlighted in the 2019 award-winning documentary “ One Child Nation ,” which explores the repercussions of China's one-child policy. The film, directed by Nanfu Wang , airs Monday on PBS at 9 p.m. CST.
China began its international adoption program in 1991 , and adoptive families were told that the children being adopted had been abandoned at orphanages, at schools and on the streets.
An estimated 110,000 children from China have been adopted globally through the program, the majority of whom are in the United States. From 1999 to 2018, American families adopted about 81,600 children from China , according to the State Department.
The Stuys were among those families.
The shift in Stuy's perspective on China's international adoption program began nearly two decades ago, in 2002, when the orphanage he adopted his second daughter from declined to provide him with her finding notice.
That prompted Stuy to search for the information himself.
These notices, he said, contain information about the child's gender, when and where they were found, their birthdate, how old they were when they were found and what orphanage was caring for them.
He and his wife traveled to China to search for the newspaper that published those finding ads. They then began collecting and compiling all the ads they found, which Stuy noted are important to adoptees' families because they also contain the earliest available photos of the children prior to adoption.
He used the ads to start research-china.org, a paid service that provides adoptive families with information about adoptees' birthplace and history.
By 2008, the Stuys had collated more than a decade's worth of finding ads, along with interviews with orphanage directors. From that data, they gleaned patterns indicating that the reports had been fabricated: They found that the same information had been used repeatedly for multiple children.
“The adoption community, we’ve all been raised with the idea that the birth families abandoned adoptees,” Stuy said. “And that understanding carries with it an emotional response on the part of the adoption of the adoptee, you know — ‘My parents didn’t want me. Why should I want to search for them?’ But in the majority of cases, there was no abandonment.”
China implemented the policy of limiting each family to one child in 1979 to slow the growth of the country's population. At that point, it was already the world's most populous country.
The policy ended in 2015 . And according to the Chinese government, it prevented about 400 million births .
The film notes that while the policy succeeded in lowering China's birthrate, it spurred human trafficking when China began its international adoption program and deprived domestic families of the ability to adopt.
“If your family is inside China and you wanted to adopt, and you are not able to afford the money they ask for, you’ll never get to adopt from the orphanage,” Longlan Stuy said. “That created a big market to keep targeting people in China. Those people kidnapped the kids from other families and then sold them to other families.”
The cost of adopting a child from the country ranged from approximately $15,000 to $25,000 . The money was used to pay traffickers who would bring in babies, according to the film. One person featured in the documentary was a former trafficker who said he was paid $200 for every infant he brought to an orphanage.
Since “One Child Nation” was released, Stuy said he has received more than 200 emails from adoptees, most of whom said that they weren't aware they could find their birth families. He said he expects to receive more emails after “One Child Nation” is shown on PBS.
By watching the film, Stuy hopes adoptees and parents of adoptees will be prompted to question the validity of the information they've been told about adoption, he said.
“We hope that the adoptees will rethink their emotional and intellectual position relative to their birth families and change their minds and say, ‘I need to start from the beginning and see how much of this I can find out to be true or not,’” he said.
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I pity those Chinese kids in America. Now they're ging to have to bear the xenophobia, bigotry, hatred, blame and racial prejudice now pervading the USA, which is so well reflected by the many such articles and comments on thenewstakers.
... it's been here since the beginning and the vast majority are those you consider friends of israel now. tough shit.
I disagree in part Buzz. While there may be some that face discrimination (bad as that is), it really isn't comparable to leaving newborn infants in the street or market to suffer and die. That is what has happened to at least tens of thousand of babies in China.
You guys want history? What about the civil rights battles and the hatred and prejudices that still exist. Forget history, what about your daily shootings and mass shootings and domestic if not foreign terrorism in the USA - shootings at places of worship? Look in the mirror before you criticize others. You're not so perfect. You have a history of discrimination against Chinese people that goes back to the railroad workers so why am I not surprised that you still continue it?
Not denying any of that Buzz, you are completely correct in your history and assessment. It also does not change the fact that China’s one child policy led to an atrocious period that literally left newborns left for dead because families feared the consequences from their government.
These two facts are not mutually exclusive. I get that you are defensive of your current home; but, it doesn’t change the facts.
I think that is a pretty fair assessment, Larry.
Pot - Kettle China realized the policy was a mistake and it is gone. I just find it interesting that these days it is a blame and criticize and despise China free for all. Every country has its faults.
Please watch the PBS special if the link is allowed where you live, it's eye opening as to conditions in China over the last four decades and the propaganda war they fought to make their one child policy seem less sinister than it actually was. Then tell us whose children should be pitied.
I would have done so, but unfortunately I get a message that says that it could not be shown where I am, but I could open the trailer, for what it's worth.
Of course the one child policy was a horrible mistake and the brutality with which it was enforced is even worse. The Chinese government had a positive intention, for it to limit the population, but eventually realized that it was a terrible mistake because of the economic disaster of not having enough younger working taxpayers to support the burgening aging population. Now the culture has been moulded to prefer less children and that has just exacerbated the problem.
I find it interesting though, that now, at this time, America and Americans have been challenging China, pointing fingers, blaming and criticizing - sort of a crusade. Could it be because America is concerned that it could be overtaken as the number one country in the world? I'm not blind to the veracity of some of the accusations, but I have to laugh at the ridiculous ones like some of the quoted numbers. I'm not a radical, a firebrand, a person who wants to be Tianemen Tank Man, and I don't want to be, so nobody bothers me and I'm quite safe.
Please understand why I don't wish to join Americans in their "war against the Chinese government'. Of course I'm fully aware of its faults, but I am comfortable and happy here for a number of reasons, am and have been respected, even befriended by many Chinese people, even government officials and police besides professionals and ordinary people, and I am happily married to a Chinese woman wtih an accepting family who does not want to leave her family and friends. Besides, I am able to live very comfortably here on my Canadian pension, whereas in Canada it would be insufficient to support even me alone other than in a room with a shared toilet and kitchen down the hall.
As I've done before, D.P., I want to thank you for your civility.
We're sorry, but this video is not available in your region due to rights restrictions.
We're sorry, but this video is not available in your region due to rights restrictions.
We're sorry, but this video is not available in your region due to rights restrictions.
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Watched a phenomenal program last evening about China's One Child Policy, and the adoptions that came outta China because of it. Heart rending, and not as clear-cut as one might expect. It's hard not to feel sorry for these folks.
Having worked on a project in China for seven straight months..... I don't have any sympathy for the country's people. Just being able to breath in their cities is not a given. Many mornings, I could look out the window, and not see the hotel building 500 yards away. The pollution was that bad!
The list goes on and on.
Do you blame the people or the government?
The people are allowing the government to do this to them Perrie. Generations of indoctrination has them believing that they must "stand in line, keep their head down, and their mouths closed." for the betterment of the country.
The only solution would seem to be a violent revolution.
That's what it is going to take, and it is going to be an expensive one given that the PLA whom is by charter, to protect the people, but will follow the orders of leaders.
I don't see the people rising up to challenge the leadership as long as they feel that they have an improvement in their lives. Mao's "little red book" is still alive and well.
Would you concede Flynavy that there may be more involved than a desire for improvement of their lives? That a very real fear of your loved ones, your wife and children being imprisoned, tortured, and murdered, would cause people to do whatever it takes to prevent that? That is exactly what these folks face(d).
How can you know there is something missing if you never knew anything else?
And look at Russia. They were given freedom and at the end of the day, generations of being a serf society, they wanted a strong leader back. They just couldn't cope. They are a breath away from having Putin in forever.
I don't understand MUVA. Please explain.
i often don't understand him either, but,
i believe he is referring to his employee's at his shop contemplating a revolution.
.
as a former business owner, i've felt his pain
And my old garage and most of the dealerships I worked in, in the 60's.
We blew brake dust everywhere, used gasoline as a cleaning solvent and washed it
along with antifreeze into the drain system.
China's just 60 years behind and catching up.
Of course. The threat to yourself and everyone in your extended family is always in the background. Even more importantly is the fear that even if replaced, will a new for of government be any better.
Over the past 25 years or so, the Chinese have seen some improvement in meeting their basic needs. They have jobs, and a bit more money in their pockets. Furthermore, since this is the only system they've known for generations, the people are not likely to come out against the government. If the country goes into recession, that may change.
Democracy requires participation to succeed. The roots of democracy can't grow very deep in a country like Russia where having a voice in your government is unusual and not well understood. The rule of law is also key to democracy. It is what levels the playing field against the wealthy and well connected. The rule of law in countries like Russia, China, and now Turkey lose their power against those that don't answer to it.
"One Child Nation" on my watch list.
At about the same time, both China and Russia were doing mass foreign adoptions. The Chinese sold little girls and the Russians sold children who were all riddled with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, of which I personally know about from my family. Then the Russians used it as a propaganda tool when parents who adopted these kids were ill equipt to deal with how broken they were and told the Russian people that we were the monsters and not the alcoholic moms who gave birth over and over again to severely brain-damaged children.
China has a 50,000,000 shortage of women right now because of the one child rule. Furthermore, many the men, whom were pampered throughout their childhood don't measure up as prospective partners for marriage by the women that can be quite selective given they are the desired comoditiy.
Lastly, during my China project, I found the women to be exceptionally professional, bright, and hard working. As such, I awarded many lead positions to them as I knew they could get the job done. Something both they and their male counterparts were unaccustomed to. Many of the men didn't realize that they were expected to earn their appointments.
I think the gender gap is a little closer to 30 million, rather than 50 million. Considering the total population, the percentage of excess men is 0.014 % of the total population. In America, women outnumber men by about 6.63 million, so the percentage of excess women over men is 0.027 % disparity, which is about double the gender disparity than China. I don't think China is pointing fingers at and criticizing America for that.