Chinese Adoption Documentary

This weekend as I was searching through Netflix I came across a documentary about Chinese adoption. It was a National Geographic documentary titled "China's Lost Girls". I was really interested in this topic because I know that it is common for American families to adopt children from China. There were several things that I learned from the documentary that will help me in my classroom.

First of all, the majority of children that are adopted from China are girls. This is because there is a One-Child policy in China where families can only have one child, unless they pay a fine. Since males do more hard labor and can look after their family better (in their opinion), they are preferred over females. This causes a high number of girls to be placed in orphanages, and in this case they will hopefully be adopted. I learned from the documentary that the children grow up in the orphanage learning Chinese and getting little attention due to the amount of children in the orphanage and the lack of staff working there. The earlier the children are adopted, the better they adapt to their new life.

In the documentary there were several children (all girls) who had been adopted by American families. These girls told their story about how life was different in America and how sometimes they wondered why they were not wanted by their birth families but also that they were glad that they were with families who loved them. They also talked about how some of their families kept their Chinese culture alive by encouraging them to continue to learn Chinese as well as participate in Chinese culture activities. 

When I am an ESL teacher I might have several Chinese students, or just a few. Either way, I will keep in mind the challenges that they have faced, if they are adopted, or even if they are not. Being adopted is something that is difficult to begin with, but I think it is more difficult when you are adopted and brought to a whole different country than what you are used to. These students not only have to learn a new language, but they also have to learn how to live with a new family, make new friends, and adjust to the culture change. I think that in the future there will definitely be an increase in adopted Chinese children (mainly girls) in American schools since China is becoming more strict about their One-Child policy.