The lost daughters of China : adopted girls, their journey to America, and the search for a missing past / monograph

In 1997 journalist Karin Evans walked into an orphanage in southern China and met her new daughter, a beautiful one-year-old baby girl. In this fateful moment Evans became part of a profound, increasingly common human drama that links abandoned Chinese girls with foreigners who have traveled many miles to complete their families. At once a compelling personal narrative and an evocative portrait of contemporary China, The Lost Daughters of China has also served as an invaluable guide for thousands of readers as they navigated the process of adopting from China. However, much has changed in terms of the Chinese government?s policies on adoption since this book was originally published and in this revised and updated edition Evans addresses these developments. Also new to this edition is a riveting chapter in which she describes her return to China in 2000 to adopt her second daughter who was nearly three at the time. Many of the first girls to be adopted from China are now in the teens (China only opened its doors to adoption in the 1990s), and this edition includes accounts of their experiences growing up in the US and, in some cases, of returning to China in search of their roots. Illuminating the real-life stories behind the statistics, The Lost Daughters of China is an unforgettable account of the red thread that winds form China?s orphanages to loving families around the globe. "In The Lost Daughters of China, Evans explores the emotional and political complexities of an international phenomenon that creates families across the boundaries of culture and geography. She describes the trying but often comic intercontinental journey in which she and her husband - guided by an adoption coordinator known fondly as "Saint Max," and armed with high hopes and powdered formula - trekked with seventeen other families from Hong Kong to the Pearl River Delta to meet their daughters.". "At once a compelling personal narrative and an evocative portrait of contemporary China, this book investigates the country's legacy of lost daughters. Evans casts light on an important untold story, delving into the underpinnings of an age-old cultural preference for boys, the machinations of the one-child policy, and the growing pains of modern China. In a sensitive and moving look at the unprecedented mixing of two cultures, she deftly weaves together the tales of the children themselves with the mystery of their anonymous Chinese families who remain in the shadows."--BOOK JACKET. Journey to the East From China with love Down the river The one-child, maybe-one-more policy The taming power of the small Matters of life and death East-West lives In the light of the autumn moon The search for roots Finding Franny Through the Chinese looking glass. At once a compelling personal narrative and an evocative portrait of contemporary China, this also serves as an invaluable guide for readers as they navigate the process of adopting from China