As parents of kids from China, it's important (they tell me) to seek out Asian-American role models - people who are relatively noteworthy and who are both Asian and American, who live well here, in this society. So here's another one.

Scientist. Adventurer. Atom Scrambler.

Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz is a Costa Rican-American of Chinese descent. The Chinese press typically calls him Zhang Fulin (張福林 ), his Chinese name. That's the same "Fu" you'll see in a lot of adopted kids'... more

So, the other day, Daughter and My Callipygian Spouse were in the store and Daughter's eyes fell, as they do, on this doll. The one being held by that dashing man in that picture off to the right there. Normally, the eyes fall on something, Daughter makes a remark, and that's that. But on seeing this doll, she insisted she had to have it.

"Mama, Mama!" she said. "I love that Barbie! Look at her hair! Look at her color! She looks like me!"

So of course, My Munificent Spouse had to buy it for her. The reasoning behind Daughter's fascination seems a little... more

I'm not a Chinese-American, but my kids are. Here's something about what that means.

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles is a blog that's mostly about all-American Chinese food, but recently devoted a little attention to Chinese-American history, thanks to the publication of a new book... more

I remember, when I was in the paperwork purgatory of the Long Wait for Daughter, reading a story online from one of those Been-There-Done-That parents about their flight home to the United States from China.

The woman was sitting with her new bundle of joy next to a Chinese businessman, who was, naturally, curious about what this white woman was doing with a Chinese infant in her arms. And she said, "Well, I'm her mother - we just adopted a Chinese baby and we're taking her home." And the businessman... more

Question 1. - Why is the least ethnically diverse city in Canada (and possibly North America) home to the greatest number of Chinese adoptions?

Because it is, you know. Quebec City. Where they speak French. And, per capita, adopt more Chinese kids than anywhere else... more

No, not this kind of mandarin!

Faithful readers may recall my prior concerns over the upcoming Iron Man movie, as directed by Jon "Dinner for Five" Favreau, in which children will... more

I wasn't actually present during the following vignette, but I got to hear about it afterward. Backstory: Daughter knows she came from China. She knows we went to China to pick up her brother, she knows there are Chinese things in the house and that sometimes (although not terribly recently) we've gone out for Chinese food. We go other places to eat and have plenty of things from Florida/South Africa/Germany/Mexico/India/the Caribbean in the house, but still - she knows Chinese things. She can find China on a map. She may (possibly) even have ... more

Lately, I've been looking at this "Trips" application on Facebook. I don't know how well it works in reality, but it's designed to be a way to organize a trip to anywhere with whoever else is interested in going (and who happens to be on Facebook, which seems to be everyone nowadays). So, if, for instance, you're interested in, say, taking your kids on a trip back to Chongqing to see the place where they were born, you could conceivably hook up with other... more

One of the things that people seem concerned about with transnational adoption is the idea of respecting a child's birth culture, or incorporating elements of that culture into your family. This is, of course, important (witness that category just off to the right of these words labeled "Chinese culture"), but I tend to follow the reasoning of Cheri Register when she talks about international adoption creating a culture in and of itself. Neither entirely here nor there.

What's... more

China and Europe have connections that go back further than you'd think. So what *does* a "Chinese" person look like anyway?

National Geographic brings news of a fellow named Yu Hong found in a 1,400-year-old Chinese tomb.

He was buried there with "a woman of East Asian descent" (my guess, and theirs, would be his wife), but his DNA is different.... more