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 said, "Oh! She's not a Chinese baby - she's a banana baby!"

Because, you know, yellow-on-the-outside, white-on-the-inside.

That story is as good a way as any to illustrate that racism and assumptions about race cut both ways. I think that's also why it can be a little freaky for some traveling parents, especially those who wind up going off the beaten path to towns where there hasn't been a lot of international contact. You get stared at. You become, probably for the first time in your lives, a member of an obvious racial minority. (And, it should be pointed out, you get a taste of what your child has to look forward to growing up in most places in America.)

China, of course, doesn't have any kind of idea of itself as a "melting pot" or a "great assimilator," so I find it especially interesting when there's evidence of ideas about race changing inside China (not least because I intend to bring my kids back there a few times growing up). It interests me when China Daily reports that mixed marriages are on the rise, for instance. Marriage, like adoption, involves taking some solemn promises and creating a new family.

Although I'm not sure what to make of Jackie Chan's contribution to intercultural unity through the forging of new families. We must let who marry Shanghai women, now?

Stories like these are likely to become more commonplace as the One-Child Policy's unintended consequence - bunches of boys, not so many girls - forces young men to seek mates from elsewhere. This is often pointed to as a source of FEAR of WAR by social theorists, who say crowds of unmarried young men tend to be a recipe for invasion and conquest.

On the other hand, though, new research is showing that cold weather, especially in China, is more of a concern, since cold weather = smaller crops = less food = lots of crankiness = invasion and conquest.

And reassuringly, China already has an armed group of farmers taking control of the weather. With big guns. The guns are loaded with silver iodide particles that should make it rain. They're called the Weather Modification Program.

So rest easy, folks. Everything will work out in the end....