The Lost Daughters of China
by Karin Evans
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Description
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 show more 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. show lessTags
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The author adopted an infant, and several years later a toddler, from China but wasn't content to leave unexamined the conditions that caused her daughters and thousands upon thousands of other small girls to be available for adoption. She takes a clear and honest look at the one-child policy, its intended and unintended consequences, and does not even avoid the question of the morality of the Chinese government essentially selling off its unwanted surplus girls. Leaving the story in 2000, when her adopted children were 4 and 6 years of age, the question of their eventual self identities as interracial adoptees and natives of China raised in the USA remains open. It would be interesting to know how that worked out for them.
We follow the author as she completes the paperwork, the wait, and the trip to China to adopt a baby girl. She also discusses the social, historical, political, religious, and economic conditions that brought China to where it is today that forces parents to make the horrific decision to abandon a child. A well-informed story done with compassion. Excellent for parents waiting for their referrals; good for friends and family to understand the process; those already home with their children can re-live their journey.
The memoir of an American mother of an adopted Chinese baby girl is a cultural history of the events that led to the controversial 1980 one-child policy in China and the subsequent generation-long abandonment of Chinese daughters to American families.
Having adopted a daughter myself from China, I at first had a difficult time understanding how a family could give up their daughter simply because she was a daughter. The Lost Daughters of China provides the reader with an alternate look at the process of giving up one's daughter.
Review-I thought that this book was going to be more about her experience with her daughter and less about what I already knew about the condiiton and treatment (ancient and current) of chinese females. I did enjoy reading about her adoption experience but I didnt like the 'history' she made up for her adopted child. It seemed like she had a small book with her exprience and her editor said 'Uh.. we need to beef this up" So she went and gathered facts about chinas history. Then the editor said" We still need more" So then as a filler she started to add this made up stuff about where she thinks her daughter came from , who her mother was blah blah blah...
hoo i love chinese gal where is she?
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4,666 works; 197 members
Author Information
8 Works 451 Members
Karin Evans has been an editor for numerous publications, including Outside, Rocky Mountain Magazine, the San Francisco Examiner's Sunday magazine, Health, and Hippocrates, and spent two years as a stringer for Newsweek's Hong Kong bureau. Evans lives with her husband and their daughter in San Francisco
Work Relationships
Has as a student's study guide
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2000
- People/Characters
- Evans, Karin; Evans, Kelly; Mark Evans; Franny Evans
- Important places
- Guangzhou, Guangdong, China; San Francisco, California, USA; California, USA; China
- Dedication
- For all lost children, everywhere
- First words
- [Introduction] Suddenly they are everywhere, the little girls from China.
[Epilogue] There is not way to put a cap on this tale, to make any final pronouncements about this human drama--and certainly not about the country where is all began.
[Preface] Call me Aha-yi, aunt.
In the Pearl River Delta of southern China, the land is crisscrossed by water. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"Yi nu ping an," I whisper. "One girl peaceful and safe."
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)[Epilogue] Imagine.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)[Preface] I wish you all the best.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)[Introduction] Before long the story will be theirs to tell. - Blurbers
- Chang, Iris; Cahill, Tim; Tan, Amy; Min, Anchee; Coles, Robert
- Disambiguation notice
- Originally published in 2000, in 2001 an epilogue was added.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 362.7340820951 — Society, Government, and Culture Social problems and social services Social Welfare Child welfare Adoption Adopted Children
- LCC
- HV1317 .E93 — Social sciences Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Protection, assistance and relief Special classes Children Orphanages. Orphans
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 391
- Popularity
- 79,494
- Reviews
- 6
- Rating
- (3.75)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 9
