Abstract
Andrea Louie’s ethnographic study of adopted Chinese families is timely, given that the first wave of children adopted from mainland China in the mid-1990s is now coming of age. As a Chinese American parent, Louie explores the ways in which both white and Asian American adoptive parents conceptualize ethnic identity as well as ways in which racial and ethnic identity is transmitted to their children. Louie questions the idea that cultural “authenticity” exists, noting there are “many ways of being Chinese that are not reducible to ideas about racial or cultural purity” among a Chinese diaspora that includes Chinese adoptees (p. 8).
One of the strengths of this book is the longitudinal perspective. Louie is able to meet many of the families over the 8 years of her study, allowing her to observe how both the adopted youth and the parents work through identity development at different ages. Adopted youth are often talked about, but not talked to, in research, so another strength is that Louie interviews both adoptive parents and the adoptees. Finally, this book includes Asian American adoptive parents who are often not considered since intercountry adoptive parents are typically thought of as white, European Americans. By describing the ways in which Chinese American and white adoptive parents conceptualize “Chineseness,” Louie helps the reader consider how fluid ethnic and racial identity can be. This comparison also helps the reader consider how often identity has become tied to specific activities or items such as food, clothing, and art.
One thing missing from this analysis was a greater emphasis on the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality. The majority of the parents who were interviewed were mothers and all of the adopted Chinese children were female. An analysis of how these Chinese daughters expressed their ethnic identity in the context of the overwhelmingly female-centered relinquishment of children would have benefited the study. How did these girls, and their mothers, make sense of their abandonment and adoption in the framework of their gender? To what extent were the adoptive parents able to understand the sexualized and racialized stereotypes of Asian women in the United States? An additional gap in this analysis was a deeper interrogation of the ways in which identity for Chinese Americans is affected by the larger conversations about race in the United States. At times, Louie seems to celebrate the removal of rigid markers of Chineseness without exploring how assimilation to the model minority myth may be a strategy to become more accepted by dominant society. Additionally, the youth in this study are just at the beginning stages of their racial and ethnic identity development; how they identify in the future might change considerably.
Social work practitioners may find themselves working with adopted Chinese individuals and their families or other transracial or international adoptive families. This book provides a solid understanding of the potential racial, ethnic, and cultural contexts in which these families live and helps to expand and broaden the conversation of how identity develops and is defined for transracial and internationally adopted individuals.