Made in China
The Story of Adopted Chinese Children in Canada
complete synopsis
A growing number of Canadian families are realizing their dreams of becoming parents through the adoption of babies from China. Over 8,000 Chinese children have been adopted by Canadians since 1989, and are being raised half a world away from their birth place, where the only thing that might determine their fate is their gender. Are the orphans of China's One Child Policy just another export of flesh to the west serving the middle class values of white America, or are they the beloved children of fairy-tale families who cherish their adopted children more than anything in the world? Made in China looks deeply into this complex issue of international adoption from China through the lives of Canadian families from coast to coast.
Made in China follows the lives of several remarkable children from China between the ages of five and thirteen who make three regions of Canada their new home. These adopted children and their families from British Columbia, Quebec and Newfoundland, will share their personal stories providing insight into living in a trans-racial adoptive family. The children will explain how they have adapted to their new family, new environment and how they come to terms with their hybrid identities. Sometimes tough, sometimes tender, the children who are predominantly girls reveal the joys and pain of living in a visibly adoptive family. They bear the brunt of questions from their friends and the public at large about adoption, racial difference and their biological identity.
In Made in China, we will meet eight year old Rosa who lives with her single Jewish mother Wendy in cosmopolitan Vancouver. With its large Asian population and numerous opportunities for learning Chinese culture and language, Rosa finds herself melting into the racial and cultural mosaic of the west coast. In contrast is thirteen year old Sha-li, living in a suburb outside of Montreal in a francophone family. Her ascent into adolescence bring even more turmoil to her fragile self-esteem, wishing she could be blonde-haired and blue-eyed like her mother and her Quebecois friends. Yet, in the small community of St. John's Newfoundland, we discover the lack of racial diversity keeps five year old Susan a celebrity in the town, and that difference is celebrated by their friends and family. In Trois Rivieres, Quebec, ten year old Li-ma, one of three adopted Chinese girls in a bi-lingual family wishes she could find her mother in China, although she realizes that could impossible. However ten year old Mireille from Sheridan, Quebec, is excited as we follow her francophone family and her three other adopted Chinese siblings back to China to visit her orphanage, her foster parents and the site where she was abandoned. Made in China will show how Canadians have gone beyond national boundaries to create global families. These are poignant stories about how ordinary families from Canada are committed to creating bridges to help their adopted daughters discover and understand their roots.
Made in China portrays the stories of several adopted girls from China and their adoptive families who live in three distinct regions of Canada. These girls are experiencing many challenges that most adoptive children did not face thirty years ago, when same-race adoptions were much more predominant. Yet all of these children face the same quest: to find their place in the world and to make sense of their identity and their roots.
Many of these children are predominantly girls, and are the survivors of China's One-Child Policy which came into effect in 1978. This has been one of the most hated regulations imposed by the government to curb China's population growth. The result has been a dramatic increase in female infanticide and a surplus of abandoned baby girls. The imbalance of the male-female ratio has produced a surplus of 50-80 million men who will not be able to find female partners by the beginning of the next century. The majority of adopted Chinese children taken to the west are girls, and will also contribute to China's gender imbalance.
Over the past thirty years, the growing shortage of Caucasian orphans in North America has resulted in an increasing number of people adopting children from countries abroad. Canadians have been adopting children from China since 1989, with the majority going to Quebec. Many of the childless families who adopt Chinese children are middle-class, white and have limited experience with racial issues and cultural diversity. Most families hope their children will melt into the social fabric of their environment with limited difficulty.
On the whole, social workers have been less than enthusiastic about international adoption in recent years. A common objection is that children of colour adopted into predominantly Caucasian environments will grow up with an incomplete sense of their own identity. They may encounter racial prejudice in the local community, and in extreme cases may even feel like social outcasts. They may feel close to their adoptive parents in many ways, yet at the same time experience feelings of alienation, of not belonging.
Many parents are not equipped to deal with issues of race and difference. Parents with adopted children from China often meet to discuss the progress and problems of raising a child outside of her culture and in many cases, by parents of a different race. Some families choose to live in multicultural areas where racial, cultural and linguistic diversity is accepted and where it is a safe for their child to grow up. Most non-Chinese parents are aware that in adopting a Chinese child into their family they are also adopting the child's cultural heritage.
As the children grow older, many adoptive families return to China with their daughters and sons. Adopted children from China are confronted sooner or later with the dilemma of their dualities of parentage, cultures and countries. Their sense of self may be influenced by their adoptive parents, yet it is inevitable that they begin to wonder about their genetic make-up, where they came from and why they are here in Canada.
In Made in China, we meet each of the girls and their families in their Canadian homes, in their social settings and in their schools. They explain how they deal with issues of racism, their abandonment and adoption, their birth parents and whether they will return to China to search for their roots. Their stories not only reflect their own inner conflicts, but also highlights the cultural, racial and linguistic diversity of Canadian communities from coast to coast.
We will follow one of the francophone families from Quebec who will return to China with their four adopted children from China. The oldest child, ten year old Mireille will visit her orphanage in Changsha, Hunan China to find out more about her past. It will be an emotional trip for all of the family members, and a trip that they hope will resolve the questions about homeland and their abandonment.
The documentary will also animate a famous folktale about adoption, written by the famous Chinese writer Lu Hsun. Ming Ling Zi , which means mulberry insect children, refers to children adopted outside of the patriarchal line. The animation in traditional Chinese water-colour style will dot the documentary stories with this unique folktale.
The four girls are the film's major characters and complement each other. The four older girls Sha-li, Mireille, Li-Ma and Rosa will be the spine, or the through story, of the film. Their adoptive parents will interact, counterpoint, or embellish the central story of adoption and identity. The animation of the mulberry insect folktale, will be inter-cut throughout the film illuminating certain themes.
It is through the personal stories of girls rather than through reportage that we would like to portray the implications of the One-Child Policy and international adoption. Although the film will include a Chinese-Canadian community social worker, it is in the girls' stories that the film will find its heart. The characters each complement and propel one another's story. They will be juxtaposed and inter-cut to create dramatic tension. Combining documentary footage and animation, Made in China weaves an evocative collage of images and words, intertwining the stories of several remarkable children.
The documentary was shot primarily on Betacam SP, along with some smaller format digital cameras to allow greater intimacy especially when filming the family returning to China. The film will be textured with a variety of images and sounds, with a style that combines traditional documentary shooting with loose and playful handheld footage.
Perhaps this film might develop into a series, i.e., Michael Apteds' Seven Up series, where the children from a British primary school were documented every seven years until the age of forty-two. The film is textured with a variety of images and sounds: through animation, direct point of view interviews; repeated images found as we travel through China; long takes; slow motion; counter-pointed image and sound; contemporary and folk music; simple enactment's. A combination of expressionism and current events realism would best describe the film's style.
Holiday Pictures Ltd. 367-1027 Davie Street, Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6E 4L2 Tel(604) 879-6613 Fax: (604) 873-6632
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