在上个月中国政府宣布暂停国际收养后不久，Maze Felix——一位现年 28 岁、身份认同使用他们/他们的代词的中国领养者表示，这一决定带来的感受是复杂交织的：愤怒、解脱、悲伤和困惑并存。Felix 是在过去三十年中超过八万名被从中国送往美国的家庭中收养的孩子之一，在她两岁时被克利夫兰一对夫妇收养。他们并不孤单。对于许多与生俱来的文化遗产，以及核心程序结束导致的个人经历更加复杂的现实而感到欣慰和哀悼的领养者们而言，新的政策加剧了原本就复杂的体验。
中国领养研究者、红丝带折断博客（专注于领养问题）的作者 Grace Newton 对 NBC 新闻表示，无论是对这一发展持有正面还是负面观点的被领养者，“事情远不止于此”。她说：“感觉就像不对劲，这么一件事已经对我们生活的很多方面产生了巨大影响，仅仅因为政策层面的原因就被终止了，而在个人层面上它永远不会真正结束。”
尽管人们的意见各异，但对于许多被领养者来说，找到与自身经历相类似的人并建立起社群变得至关重要。 Newton 说，“我们这代‘终将消逝的族群’”，“在这样的背景下，寻找彼此并与之共处感到尤为重要”。
今年早些时候，在中国外交部新闻发言人毛宁确认国际收养不再继续时，《中华人民共和国国籍法》的相关国际契约精神得到遵循。例外情况下，对于在中国有血缘亲属（至第三代）且希望领养孩子或继子的人，将予以特殊考虑。这发生在 1992 年中国批准国际收养之后，导致近 160,000 名中国儿童被其他国家收养，其中一半被美国接收。
然而，在过去的几年里，这些收养活动的节奏已经显著放缓。在大流行高峰期的 2020 年，中国政府暂停了所有收养行动，直到接下来两年，没有一名儿童被送往美国进行领养。但在去年十月到今年九月之间，有16个美国公民在中国获得领养签证。
国际收养放慢的步伐与 2016年一项关键政策的反转相吻合——中国实施了“一个孩子”政策以控制人口增长，允许每个家庭只能生育一个孩子。近年来，该国还面临着出生率急剧下降的问题，预示着巨大的经济和政治挑战。
为了纠正这一情况，中国政府在 2021 年启动了“三个孩子”政策，并且地方政府宣布了诸如税收抵免、延长产假以及住房补贴等激励措施。然而，北京的 Yuwa 人口研究学院报告称，由于资金不足或者未能得到执行，这些补贴往往不足以发挥作用。
Katelyn Monaco, 来自马萨诸塞州昆西市现年25岁的领养者表示，新的政策引发了对“一个孩子”政策的反思，这一背景对发展至关重要。该政策导致数十万女婴和残疾儿童进入中国的社会福利体系，并且 Monaco 自己说她就来自这样的家庭，了解与之相似的经历有多么艰难。
然而，Monaco 同时看到了积极的一面——新变化有可能为孤儿院中的孩子提供保持其原生文化、国家及其遗产的机会。她指出许多领养者在获得公民身份方面也面临法律挑战，这增添了他们的身份困惑。
目前，在 1983 年2月27日之前出生的领养者并非自动获得公民身份，《儿童国籍法》对此有规定。 Monaco 回忆称，“我长大后与单身妈妈生活在一起，虽然她爱我并尽力而为，但缺乏资源和知识帮助我理解我的中国血统。”
Felix 认为新的政策对现有领养者的记录影响最大——他们担忧任何可能的孤儿院访问、亲生父母搜索以及其他与中国联系纽带的机会将突然终止。“我在渴望那些永远不会发生的事情”，Felix 说，“潜在的文化联系或文化重新连接。”他感觉到自己的生命似乎失去了一部分“因为门正在关闭”。
中国政府并未对领养者的记录处理方式做出详细说明。尽管有案例显示记录被篡改或信息稀少，Newton 指出个体和集体都在记录着我们曾存在于中国的事实，“这让人非常担忧作为群体，我们可能会只是历史上的一个脚注，甚至可能不被提及。”
随着国际收养大门关闭，Newton 强调为了让目前在儿童福利机构中的孩子在中国繁荣发展，也需要提供更多的支持。她呼吁将原本用于加强国际领养的资金转移到提升社会对于有残疾个体的支持上，并且应采取更多措施以打破中国社会对残疾人存在偏见的局面。
随着生活成本的上升和“一个孩子”政策结束后的选择增多，Newton 指出拥有残疾儿童的家庭可能难以承担他们的开销。因此，需要改变社会基础设施，使家庭能够负担有残疾孩子的费用。
所有受访的人对于这一新闻有不同的反应，但他们都强调被领养者应当成为讨论中不可或缺的部分，而这种情况很少发生。在许多非领养人群中，常常被视为“永恒的儿童”，其观点往往被认为不需要考虑。对于宗教信仰或其他广泛持有的信念受到挑战，外人参与领养者倡导空间时会感到不舒服。人们还普遍认为领养是一次性事件，而不是需要一生处理的经验。
Newton 表示，“它可能不会让某些人想到我们会有关于它的思考或感受，因为我们已经被收养了。”对于新的政策而言，“应当已经对我们来说结束了”。
新闻来源：www.nbcnews.com
原文地址：Chinese adoptees say they feel conflicted after China announces end to international adoptions
新闻日期：2024-09-28
原文摘要：
After China announced earlier this month that it is suspending international adoptions, Maze Felix, a 28-year-old Chinese adoptee, said they were struck with a heady mix of “anger, relief, grief, confusion — all of it.” Felix, who uses they/them pronouns, is among the more than 80,000 children who were adopted from China to the U.S. in the past three decades. They were adopted at the age of 2 by parents in Cleveland. And they’re not alone. From feeling relief that relinquished children can now maintain their birth cultures to mourning the end of a program that was central to their own experiences, Chinese adoptees say the new policy has only made an already-complicated experience feel even more complex. Grace Newton, an adoption researcher and the author of the adoption-focused Red Thread Broken blog, told NBC News that regardless of whether adoptees feel positively or otherwise about the development, “there’s more to it than just that.” “The feeling is just this mismatch,” Newton said. “How could this massive thing that has influenced so many parts of our life just simply be over on a policy level, when it can never really be over for us on a personal level?” But given the range of opinions, ultimately it’s been important for many adoptees to find connection among those with their shared experiences, Newton argued. “We’re a group that will ‘go extinct,’” said Newton, a Chinese adoptee herself. “With that, it feels even more important to find each other and be in community with each other.” At a press conference in early September, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning confirmed that international adoptions would no longer continue, “in line with the spirit of relevant international covenants.” Exceptions, she said, will be made for foreigners adopting the children or stepchildren of blood relatives in China, up to the third degree of kinship. It comes after China greenlit international adoption in 1992, leading to roughly 160,000 Chinese children being adopted to other countries, with half going to the U.S. But in the past few years, these adoptions have slowed significantly. During the height of the pandemic in 2020, China suspended adoptions altogether, and no children were adopted to the U.S. for the next two years. But they resumed, with the U.S. consulate issuing 16 visas for adoptions from China between October 2022 and September 2023. The slowed international adoption coincides with a 2016 reversal of China’s one-child policy, which limited each Chinese family to one child in order to control population growth. In recent years, the country has also struggled with a massive decline in birth rates, signaling major economic and political challenges ahead. In an effort to course-correct, China turned to a “three-child policy” in 2021. And local governments have announced incentives including tax deductions, longer maternity leave and housing subsidies. However, a report by the Beijing-based Yuwa Population Research institute said the subsidies have either been insufficient or just not implemented due to a lack of funding. And for two years in a row, the country’s population has continued to drop. Katelyn Monaco, a 25-year-old adoptee based in Quincy, Massachusetts, said the new rule stirred up reflections on the one-child policy, a critical backdrop to the development. The policy led to tens of thousands of baby girls and children with disabilities landing in the country’s social welfare system. It was also the policy under which Monaco said she was adopted, and it’s been difficult “knowing that that’s the end of people who may have similar experiences as me.” But Monaco said she also sees positives, optimistic that the new change could help provide children in orphanages a chance to remain with their birth culture, country and heritage. Often, adoptees grieve the separation they experience from their cultures, she said. And those adopted into a family of a different race can often feel ethnically isolated, feelings she said she felt. Monaco pointed out that some adoptees also face legal challenges in securing citizenship, adding an institutional layer to their identity struggles. Currently, adoptees born on or before Feb. 27, 1983, are not given automatic citizenship, according to the Child Citizenship Act. “For me that was really difficult,” Monaco recalled. “Growing up with a single mom, even though she loved me and she tried her best, she didn’t have the resources or knowledge to help me understand my Chinese heritage.” For Felix, one of the most troubling aspects of the new rule is its potential impact on records for existing adoptees. Felix, a Los Angeles-based model, actor and sign language interpreter, was adopted from Yangzhou, China. They said they’ve long done DNA tests in an effort to access their old medical records, adoption papers and other documentation. With little clarity on the fate of those documents, Felix and many other Chinese adoptees said they are concerned that any potential for orphanage visits, birth parent searches and other ties to their home country will be abruptly severed. “I was longing for something that really was never going to happen … potential cultural connection, or cultural reconnection,” Felix said. “My own life feels like there’s less validity because they’re closing a door on this.” A representative from the Chinese government did not elaborate on how adoptees’ documentation would be handled. Newton noted that there have been many cases in which records were falsified or contained sparse information. Even so, there’s been individual and collective documentation “that we even existed in China,” she said. “There’s a huge fear that we as a group are just going to be potentially a footnote in history or not even mentioned at all,” Newton said. With the door closed on international adoption, Newton emphasized that in order for those currently in Chinese social welfare institutes to thrive in their birth country, they also need more support. She said money that China once funneled into bolstering international adoption should be allocated to strengthen social support for children and individuals with disabilities in the system. And more should be done to disrupt the social stigma around having a disability in the country, she said. “The situation truly is a little bit more complicated for these kids with intense disabilities, especially with the rising costs of living in China,” Newton said. “A lot of people, even now that the [one-child policy] is over, are intentionally opting to only have one child. The social infrastructure needs to change so that families can afford to keep their child if they have disabilities.” While people have had a range of reactions to the news, all those who spoke to NBC News underscored that adoptees should be central to discussions on the change of policy, though that has not often been the case. Newton said adoptees are often seen as “perpetual children” whose points of view don’t need to be considered. And speaking to adoptees in activism spaces can feel uncomfortable for many outside the adoptee community when their religious convictions or other widely held beliefs are challenged. There’s also the misconception that adoption is a “one-time event,” rather than an experience processed in waves across a lifetime, Newton said. “It may not occur to some that we would have thoughts or feelings about it, because our adoption already occurred,” Newton said of the new policy. “It should be ‘over’ for us.”
