Once again, Brian Stuy is stirring things up with a new contentious contention -- that Fuling SWI (from whence came Daughter) serves as a funnel for other social welfare institutions in the area.

Specifically, he brings up evidence (circumstantial but persuasive) that babies officially reported as being "found at the orphanage gates" of Fuling actually came from Youyang SWI, a small but well-functioning institution not far from Fuling. Though it seemed to be doing good work, the institution was suddenly closed in May 2006.

...[I]n the early morning, ten vans pulled into the square in front of the Youyang County orphanage. The vans and personel were from the Fuling orphanage. While many of the Youyang staff slept, they began to load the 56 children into the vans. A serious altercation ensued, and the caregivers stood weeping as the children were taken away. All of the staff watched stunned as the vans drove down the road and headed to Fuling.

From the end of 2003, there had been a notable decline in abandonments at Fuling, possibly due to increased prosperity in the "new" town (it's one of the ones rebuilt in the wake of the Three Gorges Dam -- that's me saying this, not Stuy, just because I know it's true). But after the Youyang facility was shut down, there was a sudden spike in "found" babies, Stuy says, all of whom were listed as being abandoned at the orphanage gates. And at the same time, while before the SWI was shut down, Youyang reported an average of 10 abandonments per month, after the SWI was shut down, there were suddenly none.

These numbers could reflect sudden, dramatic changes from elsewhere (this being, as I point out, a region affected by the rapidly rising Yangtze River waters). But that seems like a bit of a stretch.

What Stuy is suggesting is that some kids' finding spots (including, I think, some kids I may well have met in Chongqing Municipal District last year) aren't what their parents think they are. Which on one level, is kind of six of one, half dozen of the other, but on another level is a grave disservice to memory and heritage and all that stuff. If it's actually happening.