From the transcendent Hanzi Smatter comes word of a research project some of you folks might be interested in.

Mariah Miller, a graduate student at the Global Studies Programme (which is a joint project of the German University of Freiburg, the South African University of Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Indian Jawaharlal Nehru University) is looking for people with Chinese character tattoos to fill in a questionnaire (that's a .doc... more

You're going to have to imagine a really striking series of photos of my kids here with the three lions from the Lion Dance at our local FCC's Little New Year picnic over the weekend.

Daughter, she loves dancing, but especially the lion dancers. Son (son!) liked the food and the running around on the playground.

And Lulu, the dog, she likes chewing things. Son (son!) helpfully procures things to chew on -- things like, oh, camera cables. So if you've been wondering when the cute pictures of the cute kids are going to be reappearing on this space, well, you'll have to bear with us.

Happy Year of the Pig! It interested me to meet as many waiting families as... more

Jan Risher of The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, Louisiana, has some familiar things to say about child-rearing, tantrums and the need for a proper goodbye:

After a big Mardi Gras celebration last week, by... more

Once again, I've spent the weekend reliving the Chongqing pneumonia. Everyone in the family got the cold. Some got it with a sore throat. Others got a bit of a fever. And some (the smallest and mightiest among us) seem only to have gotten a bit of a blocked up nose.

Me, though -- once again, straight to the lungs. (OK, the bronchial tubes, but still....) Rales. Wheezing.... more

The Abandoned is a horror film about international adoption. Or, rather one that apparently uses international adoption as its avenue into Gothic family excess and ancestral curses and stuff.

I suppose this was inevitable.

"I've spent half my life trying to find my parents."

Set in Russia, not China, but still.

Sigh.

You know that musical phrase, don't you.

This one. Dadadada-da-da-dun-dun-daa!

It was in "Kung Fu Fighting." It opened "Turning Japanese." It's the schticky "let's sound Oriental!" musical phrase.... more

This show is still freaking me out a little with the birthparent/supernorphan storylines.

Not much else to say about it.

It's very popular, and the best storyline on the darn thing(*) hinges on an adoption narrative.

(*)OK, the best storyline in English.

That isn't necessarily based on reality, given the making fire shoot out of fingers, the flying politicians and the secret agents with guns. OK, well, maybe that last part is realistic, but it's not, like, mainstream.

This is where we're at, I guess. What the culture... more

I haven't actually read this book, so I can't officially call this a "review," but if you're reading this blog, you may or may not be interested in The Chinese Adoption Handbook: How to Adopt from China and Korea, by John Maclean.

It's supposed to be an exhaustive, easy-to-use guide to the daunting process of adopting... more

The Onion produces a cautionary tale. Or an uncomfortable laugh.

Or, well, effective satire. This story originally came out when were were packing for the trip to meet son (son!) last April, but if anything, I think it embodies a social current that has gotten even more prominent.

What with Brad Pitt on the covers... more

I've never seen My Life Disoriented, and I kind of think I might be missing out on something. (My family's televisual entertainment relies solely on the poor man's Tivo: a DVD player + Netflix & the public library's video collection. I'd call it a "hipster Tivo," except all the hipsters seem to actually *have* Tivo.)

Anyway, it's the same basic premise as Boondocks -- kids from the (ethnically diverse) city move out to live with their grandparents... more