By Donna Coble

What is Chinese cultural heritage? How do we pass it on to the next generation, particularly as it changes in the context of U.S. society? These are issues shared by many adoptive Chinese families and Chinese American families.

Since 2000, Dr. Andrea Louie, a cultural anthropologist from Michigan State University, has been interviewing St. Louis area families who have adopted from China. Her research focuses on whether, how, and why adoptive families teach their children about China and Chinese culture. She conducts her research by participating in adoption-related events, such as those organized by local adoption agencies and by the St. Louis chapter of Families with Children from China. She also interviews adoptive families about their adoption stories and attitudes toward China and Chinese culture.

Louie first became aware of the adoptive community in St. Louis in 1997, while on a postdoctoral fellowship to teach Asian American Studies at Washington University. Since then, she has made numerous trips to St. Louis, ranging from a few days to two months, to carry out her research. In 2002, she accompanied a group of adoptive parents to China to receive their children through the St. Louis adoption agency, Children's Hope International. To date, she has conducted approximately 30 interviews of adoptive families, adoption professionals, and community members in St. Louis. In the process, she has grown to know and respect adoptive families, who are breaking new ground as they deal with issues relating to adoption, family, race, and cultural heritage. At the same time, she has come to recognize that adoptive families are in most respects like any others who juggle work, school, church/temple, and other daily activities.

Issues of Chinese cultural identity are not new to Louie, whose previous research in the San Francisco Bay Area focused on American born Chinese American identities, particularly in relation to China. A third generation Chinese American with ancestry in Guangdong Province, Louie participated in a cultural heritage tour called "In Search of Roots" (xun gen) in 1992. The trip, which was jointly sponsored by the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco and the Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs (Qiao Ban) in China, brought Chinese Americans, ages 18-25, to visit their ancestral villages in China. The trips were intended to not only encourage Chinese Americans to trace their ancestral roots, which extend from villages in China to the U.S., but also make them aware of China's new economic development in the wake of the Open Policy and Economic Reform.

Louie has observed that adoptive parents have complex concerns when it comes to building a relationship to China and Chinese culture for their children. Most of the adoptive families she interviewed placed heavy importance on teaching their children about China and Chinese culture. During the adoption process, both the adoption agencies in the U.S. and the Chinese government emphasize the importance of maintaining a connection to China and Chinese culture for these children. While many parents did not know much about China and Chinese culture prior to adopting, most made admirable efforts to learn about these issues and to expose their children to them after returning from China.

Many parents that Louie interviewed felt that a connection to China is one thing they can provide for their children in the absence of knowledge about their birth parents. They would also like to give them the tools to fit into the broader Chinese American community and perhaps return to China someday for a visit. Unlike Korean adoptees of an earlier generation who were raised with little acknowledgement of their Korean origins, today's Chinese (and other) adoptees are growing up in an era where cultural and racial differences are celebrated. Most adoptive parents Louie spoke with wanted their children to be proud of being Chinese, and hoped that this pride would help them handle teasing from other children or other racist incidents as they grow older.

However, parents choose to emphasize different aspects of Chinese or Chinese American culture. While some feel that having their children learn Chinese language is of key importance, others focus more on exposing their children to Chinese arts such as dance and calligraphy, and on celebrating Chinese holidays. For many parents, being around other families like their own is of key importance, as is connecting with the local Chinese American community. Other families have taken their children back to visit China.

While some parents try to incorporate as much information about China and Chinese culture as they can into their family's lives, many parents Louie spoke with have found it increasingly challenging to maintain these activities after their children enter school and become involved in extracurricular activities such as sports, music lessons, church or synagogue activities, etc. In addition, adoptive families are often multicultural, with familial influences from a number of ethnic and sometimes racial backgrounds. Like many other multicultural and multiracial families, they work to balance these various influences in the context of daily family life.

Louie has come to recognize that there are both similarities and differences between adopted Chinese Americans and the American born Chinese Americans she studied previously. Like many children in adoptive families, the American born Chinese Americans in her first research project did not have much firsthand experience with China. Having been raised primarily in America, many did not speak or read Chinese. and did not comfortably fit into Chinese culture and society. In fact, while in China, the American born Chinese Americans Louie interviewed in many ways identified more with the icons of popular culture they were familiar with from home, including Japanese comics, kung fu movies, and Hong Kong pop stars. Though they were proud of being Chinese and happy to make connections to their ancestral villages, they felt that their experience of tracing their ancestral roots from China to the U.S. ultimately brought them closer to their fellow Chinese Americans and their families in the U.S. In fact, it was the ritual and traditions practiced in the context of their Chinese American families that were most meaningful to them, whether or not they understood their origins or practiced them in "authentic" ways.

In speaking with adoptive parents, Louie has come to realize that many assume that children raised in Chinese American families maintain a close relationship with China and Chinese culture. She hopes that as adoptive families learn more about the variety of ways that Chinese Americans practice Chinese culture and relate to China, they will realize that there is no one way of being Chinese American. From her perspective as a cultural anthropologist, culture is constantly changing and taking on new forms, and it is important not to become overly concerned with issues of authenticity. The forms of Chinese culture practiced in mainland China vary widely, not to mention the various forms that Chinese customs take in Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and in other Chinese communities around the world in Latin America, Africa, Australia, etc. Thus, the question of what defines Chinese culture is complex and ever-changing. Should karaoke, ever popular in China and other parts of Asia, now be considered part of Chinese culture? Louie also encourages adoptive families to look toward the vast resources produced by the Chinese American and Asian American communities, which reflect the experiences of living as a racial minority in the U.S. Despite their unique connections to China, children adopted from China will share much in common with other Asian Americans, particularly the feeling of being in between cultural and racial groups.

Louie has been asked on numerous occasions by adoptive parents whether she thinks they are "doing the right thing." She usually responds by saying that the best thing that parents can do is be aware of the issues and make efforts to expose their children to as many resources as possible, related to both China and Chinese-Americans. Speaking as a Chinese American daughter, she also reminds parents that when children grow up, they will almost inevitably criticize their parents for something the did or didn't do. Just as there is no right or wrong way to be Chinese, there is no one way to be Chinese American.

Louie can be reached by e-mail at louie@msu.edu. Her recently published book (Duke U. Press 2004) based on her first research project is titled "Chineseness Across Borders: Renegotiating Chinese Identities in China and the United States."

「我是中國人？還是美國人？」這是每一個第二代華裔移民面對的問題，也是領養中國孩子美國家庭(FCC)面對的問題。中華文化傳統到底是什么？如何將之薪火相傳到第二代？中華文化到了美國產生了那些變化？這些是華裔美人家庭和FCC家庭所面臨的共同議題。時報本期特別報導了華裔Andrea Louie博士對這個問題所做的研究報告。

Andrea Louie博士是密西根大學文化人類學者，曾于1997年在圣路易華盛頓大學擔任博士后研究，教授亞美研究課程。自2000年起，她開始訪問FCC家庭，并于2000年參与圣路易國際儿童希望之家，陪同數位FCC家庭親赴中國大陸帶回領養的中國孩子，至今為止，Louie已訪問了三十餘個FCC家庭，各領養机构和華美社區人士。

將自己領養的孩子与中國建立起關系是個复雜的感受，几乎每一個FCC家庭都看重教導孩子，接觸中國和中華文化，領養机构和中國政府也建議FCC家庭維持和中國的關系。由于FCC父母親并不了解中國和中華文化，他們都是在領養孩子后開始學習有關中國的一切。

不同于領養韓國孩子家庭較無意愿認知韓國文化，領養中國孩子數目逐年增加，傾向中華文化也与日俱增，FCC以自己孩子的中國背景為榮，希望將來孩子長大能夠面對族裔上的問題。

有些FCC家庭將學習中文視為最基本的要求，也有些家庭讓孩子學習中國書法、舞蹈等，同時慶祝中國節日，同樣FCC背景的家庭常聚在一起，和本地的華人社區多接触，或將孩子帶回中國尋根，都能在与中國的關系上有所增進。

倒是在美國出生的中國家庭第二代子女較難認同中華文化，他們不會說中文，也不會讀中文，很不能适應華人社區，唯有在尋根的努力上能夠將這些孩子拉近中國。

「我們這樣做到底對不對？」，這是Louie博士最常被FCC家庭問到的問題。Louie博士說，做父母親的能夠了解到這個文化議題，嘗試各种不同方法讓孩子接触不同的中華文化和華美社區資源和環境，孩子長大了總會怪父母這個沒做或是那個做太多，身為華裔家庭的一個女儿，Louie博士說，沒有一個對或錯得方式去作為一個中國人，也不是只有一個方式去做華裔美人，重要的是父母親都努力過了。