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Hi fellow Taiwanese adoptees! Have any of you been back to Taiwan to reconnect with your old orphanage and/or try to search for your birth family? I've just done so and it was a pretty complicated and emotional rollercoaster process due to gaps between the household registration system and my old orphanage. I consider myself lucky since the old orphanage staff were very helpful and by a fluke, I happened to go to the local household registration office on the last day before they were due to erase my birth-family's records! According to the staff of my old orphanage in Taiwan, over 1000 kids were adopted to overseas families (mainly to American families). Since that's just one orphanage, I imagine that there are thousands of adoptees from Taiwan living overseas. If any other Taiwan-born adoptees are interested in doing a search for your birth family, there's good news from the Taiwan Times newspaper that apparently the Children's Bureau of the Ministry of the Interior is in the midst of centralizing information to assist with searches for biological families. I'd be interested to hear from any other Taiwanese adoptees to hear about your return visits to Taiwan to try to reconnect with your old orphanage and/or birth family. I've posted this thread in hopes that this information will help others avoid some of the hassles and heartache that I went through. Regards,Ripples
Last update on May 7, 2:57 pm by Miriam Gwilliam.
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Hi.. I'm not a Taiwanese adoptee, but am considering adopting a child from China. My fears are that it would be hard for the child (as she grew up) to be removed from her culture. We have many good friends who are from China, Taiwan, and other countries and she would grow up being exposed to many other cultures. But still, our fears as to whether a child, as she grew up might resent being taken away from her home hold us back from making a decision. If it's not too much trouble, could you give us your perspective, having been adopted from Taiwan? Were you happy growing up in the country you did, or do you wish it would have been otherwise? What advice would you give parents adopting a child of another race? How probable do you think it is for a child to grow up secure and happy under these unique circumstances? Would love to hear from you! Thanks!
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Hi Kiana,I can relate to your concerns since that's what I'd wonder if I were thinking of possibly adopting a child from another culture. Luckily my adoptive parents were very much interested in Chinese culture so I was able to learn about Chinese culture and the language. This knowledge and language familiarity certainly helped me deal with the roller coaster of emotions and language barriers during my reunion with my birth siblings. I was happy growing up in a Caucasian environment and my adoptive family but I recognize that other inter-country adoptees may not feel the same. My advice to parents adopting a child from another country would be to provide familiarity/exposure to the child's culture of origin since that would help acknowledge that the child does have mixed cultural roots. As for the probabilities of the child growing up secure and happy under these cross-cultural circumstances, I'm not sure what the probabilities are. I do tend to support the view that it's important to somehow recognise that adoption involves a lot of emotions of loss and that if people (adoptee, adoptive parents, birth parents) can openly acknowledge and find ways to deal with the losses, rather than deny them, the chances of somehow coming to terms will be better. I hope that this info helps.
Last update on May 7, 2:58 pm by Miriam Gwilliam.
I'm a Taiwan AdoptEEE!!!!!!!! I was born in Hualien. I was abandoned at birth and taken in by Lillian Dixon at the Mustard Seed orphanage in Hualien. I cannot find my birth mother because she had someone else sign the birth certificate. All I know is that I was almost aborted and in the end taken in. i was taken into foster care at 7 months, barely moving. I was lucky because I was adopted by american missionaries and so I was allowed to stay in Taiwan a long long time. It was a good thing. I think I was really wanting to see who my mother and father were when I was in my teens. Not so much anymore. i think its kinda hit me again now that I'm about to marry. but aside from that. I know that there were some complications in my adoption, which I will NOT name. But i think that those complications kept me from actually wanting to know anything about my birth parents. I mean, the worst case scenario is that my mom tries to contact me when I'm older and wants me to support her out of filial piety. Oh well.... just have to take that risk.
Hi bsu_beginner,I can relate to your feelings about the worst case scenario. I felt similar apprehension before I embarked on my international search. The academy winning documentary film, "The Daughter From Danang" Sounds like you have a lot of personal history to process and I can understand how various feelings about your mother and father are surfacing prior to your wedding. Yours,Ripples
Last update on May 7, 2:59 pm by Miriam Gwilliam.
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Kiana
Hi.. I'm not a Taiwanese adoptee, but am considering adopting a child from China. My fears are that it would be hard for the child (as she grew up) to be removed from her culture. We have many good friends who are from China, Taiwan, and other countries and she would grow up being exposed to many other cultures. But still, our fears as to whether a child, as she grew up might resent being taken away from her home hold us back from making a decision.If it's not too much trouble, could you give us your perspective, having been adopted from Taiwan? Were you happy growing up in the country you did, or do you wish it would have been otherwise? What advice would you give parents adopting a child of another race? How probable do you think it is for a child to grow up secure and happy under these unique circumstances?Would love to hear from you! Thanks!
According to an article titled, "Women's Foundation Pans Name-Change Amendment", in the Taipei Times on May 8, 2007, apparently Taiwan's Civil Law code 1059 now allows individuals to legally switch their fathers' surnames for their mothers', provided that both parents agree to the switch. I think this might have ramifications for Taiwan adoption members if they do birth family searches - i.e. now one might want to look under both the father AND the mother's surnames to track family members.
Good news!! The Taiwanese government has set up an adoption reunion service! I just met one of the social workers yesterday to learn about their services. The office has 3 social workers. How to request a search:You can fill in an application form to request a search and send it to them. The form is available on their web site. Or you can just send them a letter, even if it is not in Chinese. They will then conduct the search for your birth parents and then act as go-betweens between you and your birth parents. For adoptees whom they've helped in their search, they can also assist with you meeting your birth family (eg. accompanying you during the first meeting). Unfortunately, they can not offer this meeting service for people who have found their birth family by themselves. They also offer counselling referrals. Don't worry if you can't speak Chinese. They speak some English!
Last update on May 7, 3:00 pm by Miriam Gwilliam.
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It depends on the time you're adopted. Good news is that the government has established a central search date base/office so that all past adoptees can request for help there, and most government departments will unitedly help you.If you're adopted in the past, say 10 years, then the chance of finding biological parents are higher because most agencies have more completed data. Also, if you know the adoption agency / orphanage you're adopted from, I might be able to help a little. (With some experience living in Taiwan and working in the adoption service field.) I hope you can find the information you're looking for.All the best!
Last update on May 7, 9:50 am by yu shieh.