By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Why do Chinese people never adopt Chinese babies?
I see a lot of westerners come to China to adopt Chinese babies (mostly girls). During my 10-year stay in China I've never heard of Chinese adopting their babies. Why so?
11 years 13 weeks ago in Family & Kids - China
I have often wondered this question myself. I would guess that it has to do something with the traditional culture (Confucianism?) or the confines of the one Child policy, but that's probably not the whole story either. And "never" is probably more like "very, very infrequently".
Any Chinese friends out there who have some idea?
Actually, it happens quite a lot. It's just that foreigners adopting Chinese children gets more press than Chinese people adopting Chinese children.
And China at least allows American's to adopt kids, unlike other countries. *cough*Russia*cough*. :)
ElenaDob:
Russia prohibited American adoptions because of child abuse cases in the US. I think our government needs to improve living conditions in orphanages in our own country & protect the rights of the orphans instead of getting rid of them. We have the capacity to raise our own children. Chinese want to get rid of baby girls that's why they allow every Tom Dick & Harry to adopt Chinese babies.
Hulk:
Too many Russian children are born with fetal alcohol syndrome. There was actually a decline in adoptions for that reason, far before any such bans.
That's not true. I have two aunts (my mom's real sisters). Each of them has a son and adopted a girl. They just want to have one more child, even they had to pay an expensive fine for it. Having a girl and a boy is considered better than having only one child. They did pay the adopted girl babies' real moms. but I think it was necessary and not much wrong with it. They should be thanked and funded for their 10 months of inconvenience during pregnancy. I don't know why they didn't want the baby girls though. They are distant relatives of us.
GuilinRaf:
“They did pay the adopted girl babies real mom."
Sounds like a purchase and not an "adoption" to me.
andyinshenyang:
Why are Chinese pregnancies ten months compared to nine in the rest of the world?
ohChina:
because some Chinese count 28days as a month ？ sorry I don't know
Amonk:
Even numbers are luckier, so its important to only say that the Mom is 2/4/6/8/10 months pregnant.
Don't ever use absolutes like "never' when you don't know the answer. It sets yourself up to a lot of criticism..it happens! (
!
He he, I said: "know"!
TedDBayer:
not in your case, you're still at the lost and found or what ever they call it in China
Yes I know it gets money involved. But you know what? My aunts only paid a few thousand in R MB.Each American couple coming here and adopt a Chinese baby, they have to pay a damn lot more to the orphanage! I heard it is over 20 grands dollars and some damn orphanage staffs make money in this way! That's how staffs and leaders buy their Audi and BMW who work at such institutions which are supposed to be always in short of money. I guess they want their kids to be Americans too, without being adopted!
ohChina:
And many people suspect, that some stolen children end up at the orphanage. This is even worse because how could we know the staffs at orphanage have no relations with the thieves who steal kids?!
GuilinRaf:
Oh. So paying "only... a few thousand" is okay but paying "a damn lot more" is not?
Sorry, but both are equally bad.
Children are people, not "things" to be bought and sold, no matter what the price.
Hulk:
Only paid a few thousand RMB each? Oh... so... they have to buy the babies? How is that any different than human trafficking? WTH?
GuilinRaf:
It is human trafficking. But when Chinese do it it is okay, when foreigners do it , only THEN is it bad.
Hulk:
But all foreigners are immoral and dishonest, and Chinese are all very kind people who will never cheat you. 
GuilinRaf:
Spot on Hulk.
When a foreigner pays money for a baby, it is a crime.
When a Chinese person pays money for a baby, it is a demonstration of "gratefulness".
I wondered the same thing the other day
http://answers.echinacities.com/question/adoption-china-wtf
(did actually, for once, search for similar topics but failed to find this one)
ohChina:
Sorry I remember seeing your question that day and wanted to answer but I was busy preparing for exam. Too bad after exam I completely forgot it.
Scandinavian:
no props, cannot blame you for focusing on your exams. hope it went well
wow guys ！I think you misunderstand me . I wasn't blaming the American couples who have to pay 20grands to the orphanage to adopt a Chinese baby. I really didn't mean it .
For American couples who adopt a Chinese baby from orphanage，it takes a lot of paperwork and legal process . I understand that the orphanage charges them a certain amount of money because it needs money to look after the orphans and pay their staffs salary . But they shouldn't make profit and that's why I suspect if 20grands is too much. Some Chinese people suspect that the orphanage gets babies through the human trafficking way in order to “sell” those babies to American couples which is a serious crime！they prefer to let American couples to adopt the babies because Americans can pay more ！ come on how can any decent Chinese person favors that？
As for Chinese couples adoption among folks ，there are no paperworks at all. the couples will have to pay fine to get the babies hukou registered because of the one child policy. I understand what you mean by paying any amount of money makes it a purchase. but you have to consider the reality. I think as long as the real parent（s）don't mean to make money on purpose by producing a baby and selling them ，it is not that horrible. you know some parents really want to have a boy but they keep making girls . or they just have an wanted baby but can't risk to abort. I think it's better they let the girls get adopted than aborted ！ the nine or ten months of pregnancy brings lots of inconvenience，and giving birth has risks. I hope you can understand that Chinese folks feel like to pay them some money as a way to express their gratefulness and the real parents perhaps should get a subsidy for the pregnancy and birth giving.
GuilinRaf:
"Like to pay to express gratefulness"???
yeah, right.
It is still treating humans like chattel, and we both know, no money, no baby.
They do,except that it's not called in this way. I dont see any authorized organizations which help people to deal with such things.Everything is done in private. It's more like when a young girl gives birth to a child and she doesn't want it, they parents would give the baby to someone they know who can't have babies.This makes adoption a shady business among the masses.I hope they're not trading though.
GulinRaf
I think you misunderstood me.
I never said American couples adopting Chinese babies is a bad thing. They go through the legal process and do all the paperwork, pay the money which is required to the orphanage. I'm happy those babies can have a better life over there, and the American couples who want a baby can make their wish come true.
What I have a problem with, is the price those orphanage charges for the babies. And, the source of some orphans. Just like in the article
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/10/world/asia/china-baby-trafficking-twin...
sorrel:
I would think putting any sort of a 'price' on any human being is wrong. It is making a commodity out of a baby. As long as anyone can 'buy' a baby, regardless of background or race, this sort of trafficking will continue.
angelina8:
Buying human beings is WRONG! What your aunts did was WRONG!
deefoe:
I think the point you might be missing here is that you DON’T have a problem with using money to get a baby.
To Angelina:
I wouldn't call it "buying." That whole thing isn't money oriented. Their real parents didn't want the baby and then my aunt had the intention of having it. Even if the money wasn't given to the real parents in such an explicit way, my aunt would feel they constantly owe the real parents something, because they gave my aunt their baby in the following years.
过继 is a common practice in Chinese history. Yes I understand just because something is a tradition doesn't make it legit. But then again, it existed for some reasons.
If we look at this thing from another angle: Chinese couples negotiate with the real parents and get their baby. American couples pay the orphanage to adopt an orphan. "No money, no baby". You can say it's wrong. But isn't it somehow a fact?
法不责众。
angelina8:
First of all let's leave the Americans out of this. The orphanage or maternity ward employees STEAL babies and SELL them to the Americans. The Americans think they are saving the babies from life in a less-developed country and they think they are paying for getting the paperwork done. The Americans are being cheated on. I don't approve of the practice myself.
How do you mean 过继 is not buying children? There is a mother, there is a baby and there is an another lady who wants a baby. The lady who wants a baby pays money to the mother and then leaves with the baby. A financial transaction. The commodity: a human being.
In other parts of the world when a mother feels she wouldn't be able to raise her child, she GIVES the child and then an another woman who is capable of doing so, takes care of it. The mother does the act because she believes that the baby deserves to live.
I know Chinese people who have. Plus, Chinese wouldn't offer up that info anyway.
as always,we should ask"yes or no"before"why".the answer is obvious.
And I bet even I try to explain the reasons why many couples adopt babies and dont wanna tell anyone else you guys here could not understand either.
angelina8:
Yeah, foreigners don't understand, foreigners don't have families.
To Deefoe: thanks for your reply. But
I think the point you might be missing here is that you DON’T have a problem with using money to get a baby.
From nowhere could you get a baby for free.; You might want to say: There must be some women who really want to get rid of their babies. The problem is: if you go to them to ask for the baby, they will charge you a price!
