The Bakers did not distinguish themselves through their actions in this thing, and neither did Anna's biological dad (I know them).

.

What a sad story.

Still, to take the devil's advocate view perhaps, she's nine. It's not like she can't catch up in Chinese. Kids immigrate all the time, including tons of Chinese monolingual kids who move to the US and the US expects them to catch up with English in school.

Granted, they usually do it with the family they're used to.

But the culture thing is just another layer on top of the "changing families at this late date" thing.

I do remember hearing about this case when the kid was much younger, and thinking that it might come to just this end, and wondering, if there was a chance the kid would be returned to the bio parents and eventually move back to China, were they not doing a disservice in not keeping any contact with Chinese?

But, I was just some random guy listening to it on the radio.

Still, I'll point out it's one of the issues that come up when discussion of cross-cultural fostering happens.

I'm very glad this is going green. Heartwrenching.

And interesting, her siblings who stayed with the bioparents the whole time are bilingual as you'd expect. PARTICULARLY given that she had siblings (including a SISTER) who were apparently doing okay it just seems really odd that the courts forbade the bioparents from seeing her all that time.

But yeah... don't know what to think, I guess.

Poor kid. Yes, she can probably adjust to being Chinese, but to adjust to being Chinese with a new family, that's going to be hard for her: she's really on her own on that. Boarding school, however, might actually help- she's hearing a lot of Chinese and she's got her sister there too.

It's really too bad that they couldn't have found her foster care with parents who spoke Chinese, but I assume that's an impossibility and nothing anyone could have foreseen. Of course, it's also too bad that they only put the oldest child in care. (Or that's what it sounds like, anyway.) And I really hope her Christianity doesn't pose a problem for her in China.

And may I say that the article presents it like the only reason there was a legal debate was because of the health insurance set up, which is just another thing about this that makes me sigh.

so, they gave up their first child because they couldnt afford to take care of her and then went right on out and had another one? did this strike anyone as odd?

Shame on her Chinese birth parents! Why wouldn't they want the best for their child?

This always sucks when it comes to parental fights.

Not sure why it matters that China is involved, though.

Someone in this is cuban right?

hb0mb: so, they gave up their first child because they couldnt afford to take care of her and then went right on out and had another one? did this strike anyone as odd?

Hahahaha, do you still live in the 50's?

Next they be saying she'll be in the sex trade. What is so bad about this? I do not see it.

Are they going to take away her Dr. Pepper?

Sad, very sad. There was also something in the paper today about 10,000 Sudanese infants starving to death, but this poor dislocated Chinese kid, I dunno, really pulls at the old heartstrings.

Diggin: Next they be saying she'll be in the sex trade. What is so bad about this? I do not see it.

I meant, the media will blow it up like she's being traded.

Then, "what is so bad about about China?"

I had to clarify myself.

Madame Ovary: Shame on her Chinese birth parents! Why wouldn't they want the best for their child?

What an ignorant comment.
I expect no less from Fark.

Madame Ovary: Shame on her Chinese birth parents! Why wouldn't they want the best for their child?


There isn't really anything in Chinese culture that could surpass the supremacy of the integrity of the family.

There isn't really anything in Chinese culture that could surpass the supremacy of the integrity of the family.

You mean, the supremecy of the parents.

Madame Ovary: Shame on her Chinese birth parents! Why wouldn't they want the best for their child?

Ummmm, did you really mean that or did you just phrase it wrong? Because as it stands right now you are the douchebag of the thread.

While I'm not a big fan of adoption, and think both the sets of parents did a lot of asshattery along the way...

there's something farked up about ripping a NINE year old from the only home she's known, sending her half way around the world, then having her family split up and her tossed in boarding school. I don't know, if I was her mother I'd like to think I'd say "this is farked up" and send her back to her adoptive family. Jesus.

That article seems to really pick out that poor girl's flaws doesn't it.

/my teeth used to be too big for my face too

I'm outrageously outraged at this outrageous outrageousness!

Naritai: There isn't really anything in Chinese culture that could surpass the supremacy of the integrity of the family.

You mean, the supremecy of the parents.

Um. No?

speak ching chong, suck ding dong, play ping pong ? what's so hard about that ?

On second thot, I guess female chinamen have a harder time pee-ing in a coke can. Maybe a funnel would help ?

I hope her father's accuser is happy.

Man! What is up with all the depressing shiat on Fark today?
I'm gonna' need to stop for a couple of bourbons on my way home from work because of it.

Her mother, Qin Luo, took the kids from the city of Changsha,

Damn it feels good to be a Changsta

Dallymo
Heartwrenching.

Yeah. Poor kid.
Damn.

tsferg: Madame Ovary: Shame on her Chinese birth parents! Why wouldn't they want the best for their child?

Ummmm, did you really mean that or did you just phrase it wrong? Because as it stands right now you are the douchebag of the thread.

Why? Taking the girl from the family she has grown up with AND throwing her into an alien culture where she doesn't know the language and in a country with a history of human rights abuses and other problem is cruel, IMO.

I dunno, it's sad, sure. But am I the only one who read that and thought, "What a tough kid. I bet she grows up to be a really kick ass biatch!"

I would let her stay with me. Bang Bang Yum Yum. know go make me some dim sum.

shirtsbyeric: I hope her father's accuser is happy.

Farking biatch!!!

She's nine.

She'll pick up the language while immersed in no time flat. In fact, the way the world is going, this will likely stand her in good stead in the future -- Native level Chinese and English and a deep understanding of both cultures will be important when she's older.

The famial aspects are sad, but nothing worse than other broken homes.

Really sad. There was nothing scarier in my childhood than thinking my bioparents might suddenly show up and take me away, although better at age 8 than at age 5.

It's the adopted kid who suffers. She gave no consent to any of these people and should be allowed to choose what she wants to do.

Kids are still treated like property - the property of the people with teh DNA who engendered them, which is really stupid. Human infants die without people to take care of them, taking care of an infant makes you their parent.

Not your fricken' DNA.

On a serious note, those opposing this are being very subtly racist towards China. The asuumption is that living with her own birth mother and living in her own country with her own people is somehow inferior to being adopted by an alien, speaking a alien language and living in an alien country.

The birth mother, regardless of culture, almost always should get custody.

Don't worry, she'll be president some day.

Language acquisition won't be a problem. Even adults will acquire a knowledge of a language if immersed in a non-native environment. I knew a Finnish guy back in tenth grade. He only spoke English at a fourth grade level at best when he first came to our class. Within a year he was at an eighth grade level.

I'm much more concerned about her emotional development. She did absolutely nothing- but she's the one to suffer most. I think she'll be fine in the end, kids are resilient like that, but in the meantime you gotta feel sorry for her.

DistendedPendulusFrenulum [TotalFark]
Mind elaborating on the back story?

Poor kid. The whole thing is beyond farked up, and she's the one who gets the short end of all of it.

By the by, to the chodes going for cheap laughs - grow the hell up.

CB-in-Tokyo: She's nine.

She'll pick up the language while immersed in no time flat. In fact, the way the world is going, this will likely stand her in good stead in the future -- Native level Chinese and English and a deep understanding of both cultures will be important when she's older.

The famial aspects are sad, but nothing worse than other broken homes.

You really don't see the difference between staying with one parent and seeing the other one part-time and losing both parents entirely?

Wow. Just wow. You're one cold individual (and have really screwed up notions about the effects of divorce).

I'm wondering who paid the immigrants' legal fees over FIVE YEARS. Considering that they were destitute, the bio parents must have had a sponsor to make this an international incident. If this were my kid, she'd be back in the US by now and we'd have a whole 'nother 'welfare of the child' discussion. That should have been a CONDITION of the original release to bio parents - in other words, should they divorce and should she be sent to boarding school to learn to become a servant, then she'd revert to US custody - to avoid exactly this fate.

pstudent12: On a serious note, those opposing this are being very subtly racist towards China. The asuumption is that living with her own birth mother and living in her own country with her own people is somehow inferior to being adopted by an alien, speaking a alien language and living in an alien country.

The birth mother, regardless of culture, almost always should get custody.

But Chinese is the alien language and alien culture in this case, unless you think chinese culture is written her DNA. Which seems far more racist.

I don't think a child that old should be taken from the family they have spent all their remembered life with. It's just cruel. These things should be decided for the benefit of the child, not the parents.

Absolutley disgusting!

way to scar that child!

pstudent12: On a serious note, those opposing this are being very subtly racist towards China. The asuumption is that living with her own birth mother and living in her own country with her own people is somehow inferior to being adopted by an alien, speaking a alien language and living in an alien country.

The birth mother, regardless of culture, almost always should get custody.

The assumption is that the quality of life for the average American is better than for the average Chinaman...I mean Chinese.

/I keed...I keed.

pstudent12: On a serious note, those opposing this are being very subtly racist towards China. The asuumption is that living with her own birth mother and living in her own country with her own people is somehow inferior to being adopted by an alien, speaking a alien language and living in an alien country.

The birth mother, regardless of culture, almost always should get custody.

As an adopted kid whose real parents (those are the non-bio ones, btw) are a different ethnicity than I am, I strongly disagree.

It's the people who diapered you, watched you take your first steps, have the common memories and know your personality who should almost always get custody.

Again, too bad the child in question doesn't get a say.

I'm part Chinese, also, and admire Chinese culture.

To all those saying that she'll learn the language in no time, did you not notice in the article that she's been there nine months or something and she still can barely say a damn word?

Zhe shi hen cuo. ;.;

/learning Mandarin
//no idea offhand if my pinyin is right

Xomber: pstudent12: On a serious note, those opposing this are being very subtly racist towards China. The asuumption is that living with her own birth mother and living in her own country with her own people is somehow inferior to being adopted by an alien, speaking a alien language and living in an alien country.

The birth mother, regardless of culture, almost always should get custody.

The assumption is that the quality of life for the average American is better than for the average Chinaman...I mean Chinese.

/I keed...I keed.

An assumption backed up by statistics, not to mention the fact that all her memories are of her American parents. It wouldn't matter if she was moving to Norway or Somalia, this is cruel and wrong.

quadzilla: I'm wondering who paid the immigrants' legal fees over FIVE YEARS. Considering that they were destitute, the bio parents must have had a sponsor to make this an international incident. If this were my kid, she'd be back in the US by now and we'd have a whole 'nother 'welfare of the child' discussion. That should have been a CONDITION of the original release to bio parents - in other words, should they divorce and should she be sent to boarding school to learn to become a servant, then she'd revert to US custody - to avoid exactly this fate.

Really? You think the American government/court system should have the right to determine what goes on in a family in another country?

RemyDuron: Xomber: pstudent12: On a serious note, those opposing this are being very subtly racist towards China. The asuumption is that living with her own birth mother and living in her own country with her own people is somehow inferior to being adopted by an alien, speaking a alien language and living in an alien country.

The birth mother, regardless of culture, almost always should get custody.

The assumption is that the quality of life for the average American is better than for the average Chinaman...I mean Chinese.

/I keed...I keed.

An assumption backed up by statistics, not to mention the fact that all her memories are of her American parents. It wouldn't matter if she was moving to Norway or Somalia, this is cruel and wrong.

So you and I are in agreement, then...
RTFP thoroughly.

Xomber: RemyDuron: Xomber: pstudent12: On a serious note, those opposing this are being very subtly racist towards China. The asuumption is that living with her own birth mother and living in her own country with her own people is somehow inferior to being adopted by an alien, speaking a alien language and living in an alien country.

The birth mother, regardless of culture, almost always should get custody.

The assumption is that the quality of life for the average American is better than for the average Chinaman...I mean Chinese.

/I keed...I keed.

An assumption backed up by statistics, not to mention the fact that all her memories are of her American parents. It wouldn't matter if she was moving to Norway or Somalia, this is cruel and wrong.

So you and I are in agreement, then...
RTFP thoroughly.

Oh, yeah, you must admit you could have stated that more clearly. And nothing in my post clearly said I disagreed with you.