In honor of National Adoption Month, Hyphen Magazine’s november issue has only writings from Asian American adoptees. Many of the most well-known KAD writers are included, among them: Matt Salesses, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Lee Herrick, Sun Yung Shin, Leah Silvieus, Robert Yune, Nicky Sa-eun Schildkraut! https://hyphenmagazine.com/blog/2017/11/november-adoptee-literature-folio
One of my favorite personal reflections on adoption ever. It carries a sentiment that I tried to capture in the term “kad nation”, and yes there is also an “adoptee nation”. Many times these days, I feel I belong to this nation more than even the US or Korea. It is a nation that transcends borders. It is a global territory, moving and forming when its inhabitants coalesce. To stand in its presence is to feel alive […]
As reported in Korea Times: Of 111,148 ethnic Koreans legally adopted into American families, 14,189, or 12.8 percent, have failed to obtain American citizenship and are left vulnerable to deportation, said Rep. Shim Jae-kwon of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). As someone else recently said, adoption without citizenship is human trafficking. Leaving adoptees hanging in the wind due to the failures of those who adopted, oversaw, and administered it is a crime against humanity. […]
It is well-known that lack of support for single mothers was a major source of why many children in Korea were given up for adoption, but to this extent? From Hosu Kim’s Birth Mothers and Transnational Adoption Practice in South Korea: Single mothers constitute the great majority of all birth mothers involved in transnational adoption from South Korea. More than 120,000 children, or two out of three adoptees, were, or are, children of single mothers. […]
A case study in adoptees not knowing their own birth date – one of the many common knowledge details typically denied adoptees. One attempt at contacting the adoption agency for confirmation of existing information and filling in of blank spots went along the lines of “We’re sorry, but we cannot disclose this information about you without written consent from your biological father.” But he is dead! “We know.” How the hell am I going to get written consent from […]
It is always shocking when a KAD commits suicide, and we feel the loss keenly. When that person had been deported because of shameful policies that continue to exist in the US – as befell Phillip – it feels like a knife in our back. All that might be beautiful about adoption is rendered ugly in that light, and the words family, country, and belonging reduced to empty marketing slogans. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2017/05/119_229975.html Even in death, our identity is […]
KGSP is not really a motherland trip, but studying abroad in korea could be perfect for adoptees. Free higher education + monthly stipend + language program. Better than a small scholarship, longer than a homeland tour, more immersive than language school. http://www.niied.go.kr/eng/contents.do?contentsNo=78&menuNo=349
A couple other adoptees are hoping to represent Korea in the 2020 summer Olympics, but are there any before Marissa Brandt? She is already competing on the national team and is expected to be in the Olympics. Brandt, 24, was adopted by a family in Minnesota when she was four months old… and now finds herself playing for South Korea less than one year from the PyeongChang Winter Olympics here. She hopes to find her birth […]
Posted with permission of the author, this was a profound expression of the complexities of race as a KAD parent. It can be difficult to feel like an “authentic” korean, and then it becomes even more challenging because parents often want to pass on their heritage to their kids. (The heritage of one’s adoptive parents can feel even more foreign.) It is left up to the KAD to bear that burden which they may be […]
There are even adoptive families that don’t survive the adoptee coming out racially, so it is sad but not surprising that couples and other relationships also experience tremendous pressure. One story: When I met my girlfriend, who is also white, we were both coming out and helped one another accept and understand our sexuality, which really brought us together. Now I’m coming out racially—as a woman of color. … I don’t mean to blame my […]
