CHINESE ADOPTEES
DMAE ROBERTS
8:00
SOUND: CHATTING WITH PARENTS
YING: I’m Ying Ying Fry and right now I’m eleven years old and I live in San Francisco and I’m Chinese American and I like to play soccer and run track. And I have two cats, one is Mallow and one is Smudge.
SOUND: OF PARENTS FADE UP AND UNDER
YING: My mom’s name is Amy Klatzkin. My dad’s is Terry Michael Fry. And they do, my mom’s an editor and she goes to USF right now because she wants to be I think a therapist. And my dad does something with a company called Negsant and he goes to work every day and well, my mom picks me up and stuff.
SOUND: MUSIC FADES IN
YING: I was born in Chung-Sha in Hunan, that’s a province and I don’t know what time and I don’t know exactly what day. They estimated the day, and I don’t know what hour, what minute, and I’m not quite sure. The first time I went, I think it was just to see and when my friend went to her orphanage, that’s when I really wanted to go to mine, because I thought it wasn’t fair that she got to go to hers, and that’s when I decided I wanted to go back and visit my orphanage. And then I also went back with some other friends just recently last April, 2004. And well, we visited Beijing and a lot of other places but I’ve been to Jiangshe, Shanghai, Changsha, Shian and Hong Kong and I think my favorite is Changsha and Hong Kong. Changsha because I was born there and Hong Kong because it’s really modern and it’s fun.
SOUND: YING YING READS IN CHINESE, THE ENGLISH IS OVERLAYED
YING: Here’s the Chinese version: CHINESE Here’s the English version: I like China. I hope I can go back to China. I would like to go to the Great Wall and walk a long time. Go back to my orphanage and see the little kids. I could go to Uhan and see the Yangshe River. I could go to Changsha and see my friend Lucy. I can go to Beijing and see Tienamen.
SOUND: MUSIC FADES OUT
YING: Being Chinese-American means not being only one, not just being American and not just being Chinese because it’s important to have both. Just so I can go back to China and actually communicate and not to feel because my mom knows all these adoptees, like Korean adoptees and they were wishing they’d learned Korean when they were younger, and she said it’d be good for me, because she said the Korean Adoptees couldn’t communicate when they went back and they really wanted to say something and it would be so much better if I learned at a young age and when I got older I wouldn’t forget it when I got older and it would be better, and not communicate without a tour guide or something. At school I have about three friends that are adoptees and outside of school I have a lot of friends that are also adoptees and they’re like my normal friends. And they are my normal friends.
SOUND: OF GIRLS CHATTING FADES UP AND UNDER
MAYA: I’m Maya. In the eighth grade. I was adopted at nine month old in the province of Hunan. And both my parents are Caucasian and it’s kind of weird because when you go to restaurants people look at you and it’s weird. It feels odd. They stared at me a lot. And I was just standing there.
ZAJI: My name is Zaji, I go to Case. It’s a bilingual school, we learn Chinese and English. I’m going into seventh grade. I have met my birth family and I was adopted from Zhiang-She province and I’m eleven. Yeah I am.
MEILI: I’m Meili and I go to the Chinese American International School and I’m twelve years old and I was adopted from Wuhan when I was seven months old.
YANG:. My name’s Yang and I’m in eighth grade at Chinese American International School. I’m thirteen and I was adopted from Wuhan when I was five months old. OH, my parents are Caucasian and it’s kind of weird, because some people think my dad’s Chinese. Because he has sort of dark hair and they’re like wait, so the father’s Chinese, right?
MAGGIE: I’m Maggie. I’m ten years old, I’m going to turn eleven. I’m going into seventh grade. I was born in Shanghai, China. My parents are Caucasian. I have one brother and two sisters. They’re not adopted.
KAM: I’m Kam. I’m eleven years old and I’m in the sixth grade. I was adopted from China when I was one year old and I go to Alsfonyou Alternative School.
YING: (with girls) When I went to China when I was in second grade, I went to my orphanage with my other friend Annie and I found my person who took care of me and I was really happy and so was she and she gave us Cup of Noodle, which made me really happy. And I played with the babies and I went into this room with at least five year olds and four year olds and I think one or two were six and I was like what are you guys doing and they were like oh, I’m watching football where in America they call it soccer. And I was like I thought that was soccer. And they’re like oh no, that’s when you kick the ball and you put it in this big hoop thingie. But they were talking about basketball and I was like okay, have fun. And they were eating out of these bowls and I felt bad and I really wanted to adopt one of them because they were really cute.
KAM: I think I would tell them to keep showing their child pictures of China and of the orphanage that they came from even if they couldn’t really understand yet, but just keep showing them pictures and keep talking to them. And then probably sooner or later they’ll understand that they’re adopted because I think it wouldn’t really feel good if you were older around in your teens and then your parents finally tell you that you’re adopted.
I would tell them to for them to put their kids in Asian neighborhoods so the schools they go in they can have people to talk to that’s Asian.
I would say that no matter what, even if somebody really tries to put you down, don’t let them because that will really bug you and you don’t want that to happen and then you might get mad at your parents or something. So you just no matter what try to stay calm.
SOUND: FADE OUT GIRLS CHATTING
SOUND: OF YING YING READING IN CHINESE AND ENGLISH OVERLAYED
YING: I like China. I hope I can go back to China. I would like to go to the Great Wall and walk a long time. Go back to my orphanage and see the little kids. I could go to Uhan and see the Yangshe River. I could go to Changsha and see my friend Lucy. I can go to Beijing and see Tienamen.
SOUND: YING YING AND PARENTS HAVING TEA
YING: Forever family is like a family that takes care of you and cares about you for the rest of your life, not your parents that gave birth to you but the people that actually care for you and make a home for you and stuff. And feed you. But that’s what forever family means.