Being Adopted.
A Me By Any Other Name
By Jenny Zhang, culture
“What is it you want to change?”
I’m standing at the counter of the Registrar’s Office at my University talking to a lady named Vanessa. She starts scrolling through my records on the computer in front of her, and I can sense that she is already annoyed with me.
“My name. The name that I’m enrolled under at the university.”
She frowns. “What’s wrong with the one you have now, Jenny?” She glances at the computer screen to confirm that this is—indeed—my name.
“Because it’s not my real name.”
This statement is met with silence. I immediately realize this makes me sound like a shady con artist, one of those people they feature on shows like 20/20 or 48 Hours Mystery. I mean,” I stammer, “I need to change it to my Chinese name.”
(click here to read more)
API Collegiate Press: Chinese-Americans are really Chinese, American, neither and both.
When I went back to China in the Summer of 2010 to study abroad, one taxi ride truly made me question my identity as a Chinese-American. There were two Chinese-Americans who did not speak Chinese, with one Chinese-American student who did. By default, she instructed the driver where to go and the…
China Fires 12 After Inquiry on Adoptions
Investigators concluded that workers did not engage in “baby trading,” but they found “severe violations,” a newspaper reported.
Chinese Adoptees in Sweden
Growing up surrounded by blond, blue-eyed children in Sweden, Chinese adoptees Alice, Mimmi, Nanna and Linnéa always felt different. The girls were adopted on the same day from the same orphanage but — having moved abroad as babies — they don’t speak Mandarin and have no concept of their native country. Now ten years old, they are returning to China for the first time. What will they make of their homeland? A moving look at identity.
: Throwback
Ugh, let’s face it I’m obsessed with China. Yet I only lived there for a short period of my life. I don’t know why, but I love learning and living in its culture. I don’t think I regret having Caucasian parents because they are the only parents I ever had. I probably should stop referring to Asian…
