New Families, New Cultures, New Identities: Changing U.S. Family Formations through Adoption from China

FAIN: FT-52622-04

Andrea Louie
Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI 48824-3407)

Since1985, over thirty-three thousand children, 97% of them girls, have been adopted from China, creating multi-racial and multi-cultural families. My preliminary research shows that parents are raising their children with a connection to China and Chinese culture, and blending their child’s Chinese origins into their family life, thereby creating new family forms, traditions, and cultural identities. The proposed research involves conducting interviews in the St. Louis adoptive community, and producing a journal article and a grant application for further research. The adoption of children from China provides an opportunity to examine a question central to humanities research: tthe changing diversity and cultural life of America.