Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins

Daughters of the bamboo grove: from China to America, a true story of abduction, adoption, and separated twins by Barbara Demick is the first title I’ve read by this author. Her reporter’s skills stand her in good stead. The writing flows well and without her research skills she wouldn’t have been able to write this book.

What I found most interesting in this was her discussion of China’s one-child policy, the financial pressures it placed on families, and the ways in which underfunding orphanages in China and the international demand for infants for adoption created a “market” for acquiring babies.

I appreciated her information not just on how she happened to find and document the set of twins featured in the book, but also show more the information about the economic, emotional and sociological issues surrounding both families, and the larger issue of how Chinese adoptees are coping with information about how adopting infants from China actually worked.

I do have to say that as the sister of an adopted child, I would not have wanted non-family members visiting and photographing the first meeting of my brother and his two families. I understand why Demick included it, and I think she tried to be respectful of the families. I think they were quite brave to allow her to be present. show less

I picked up this book to read about China, but really is more about separated twins, the nature nurture controversy and a dash of modern China’s history.

Yes, it is set in China and I really did learn a lot about the history of China post Mao. I knew about the One Child policy and the Cultural Revolution, but I was missing a lot of detail and was a little bit mixed up on the timelines.

The early parts of the book explains Chinese culture and history post WW II excellently, and I think the early chapters would be a good refresher for readers whose understanding of modern China has come largely from the news.

The most interesting part of the book for me was about twins . And not just the twins Fangfang and Shuangjie whose lives Barbara show more Demick followed. It was about inter-country adoption of identical twins.

Baby Fangfang was taken from her parents when she was around two years old. At the time of her abduction the One Child policy was in place and Fangfang had not been registered at birth. The One Child policy had lead to corruption by local officials and parents had to hide “unlawful” children.

In America Fangfang was given the name Esther and was raised as an American girl. When the twins met in China, facilitated by reporter Barbara Demick it was 2017 and the girls were 14. Both girls were well-adjusted in their different cultures. They remained in contact after the 2017 visit. Gradually however communications trailed off, and when Covid struck there was very little communication between the two.

The book gives us a run-down of a number of twin studies, concentrating on the nature nurture controversy and the ethics of separating children, twins or siblings and having them brought up in different countries.

I have read a number of these studies of failed adoptions in Australian reports during the 1980s when children were brought over from Vietnam. The effects in the original family members can be devastating. In many cases, such as the book’s twins, the exported children are not even told about their twin.

Demick’s observations are similar to my own. I get really annoyed when I read about Western celebrities bringing children from developing countries to the West, thinking that they are doing good. Believing the country that they are taking the children from has no culture and is inferior to their own. America, Australia, and the UK are the main countries where adopting children from overseas has been a practice. Fortunately, the practice seems to be slowing down, and the ethics of adopting children from other cultures is in question.

Daughters of the Bamboo Grove is an interesting piece of non-fiction although I think the name is misleading and was used in order to increase sales. It is not a story about Fangfang and Shuangjie.

I also had a bit of trouble understanding what the writer was really trying to say. Was this a book about China, or a book about inter-country adoption, or a book about nature/nature? I liked the book and the lack of cohesion did not detract from my enjoyment, but I feel Demick would’ve been better off writing two books instead of combining themes. show less

A look at the effects of China's One Child Policy, and the boom in international adoption (largely of infant/toddler girls) that took place from that country in the '90s/early '00s, hooked around the eponymous "daughters of the bamboo grove" of the title—twin sisters born in such a grove in rural China to a family which already had other children. One of the twins was abducted by the state Family Planning Agency and adopted by an American couple. The other remained in China. The author, Barbara Demick, played a role in helping the sisters reunite when they were in their teens.

The first third or so of the book is very gripping; it becomes less secure in its structure as it progresses and could easily have been edited down by 75-100 show more pages and been the better for it. Equally, I wish that Demick had been as willing to dig into and critique white evangelical saviorism as she is the CCP. show less

I listened to this in audiobook format.

This work of journalistic non-fiction is about China's failed One Child Policy focusing on a set of identical twin girls, one who was stolen by the government and adopted to an American family. I enjoyed the first half and learned a lot about the horrors of China in the 1990s. The second half was a little drier as I wasn't that invested in the outcomes of the twins. But the picture of China's modernization compared to America's supposed decline was interesting (and flawed analysis IMO), as was the unfolding of COVID, and the impact of widespread genetic testing on reunification with birth families. Demick is my favorite non-fiction writer and this is another great read, though if you're only going show more to read one of her books it should be Nothing To Envy (about North Korea). show less

Reason read: nonfiction book from Women's NF Longlist about twin sisters separated by China's one-child policy, one of whom was kidnapped and adopted by an American family, while her twin was raised in China. This is really quite an abbreviated summary of the book. This is an excellent book that explores such topics as birth control, adoption, and twins. While this looks at an incident in time and place it also examines mistaken government policies such as birth control. A decline in birth rates in China resulted in negative consequences. In the US, birth rates are at an all time low. There are negative consequences. The book also explores international adoptions; pros and cons, the mistaken ideas well meaning people had about these show more children they adopted. Barbara Demick is a journalist who has been interested and wrote often about China and about China's one child policies. I rated this one 5 stars and highly recommend it. show less

From the blurbs, I expected a book about international adoption. The title and cover led my family members who helped me search for the book to expect a novel about exotic Chinese women. I did find the title overblown and excessively dramatic, as well as racist in the "othering" and exotic sense.

What the book contained was a lot of background about the one-child policy followed by the story of one family's pregnancy and birth. At this point, I was not deeply interested in the story and set the book down to devote my attention to real life. Some time later, we had to send out the search party. I'm not going to go back and finish the book.