VOA标准英语2009年-'Homeland Tours' Bring Chinese Adoptees Ba

In the early 1990s China made it easier for families from abroad to adopt Chinese orphans², most of whom were girls. Today about 60,000 adopted Chinese children live in North America, and about 15,000 live in Europe. Many families take special tours to give their adopted daughters a chance to experience Chinese culture and visit their orphanages⁴.

When parents from other countries adopt a Chinese orphan¹, they are often asked to promise that they will teach their child about Chinese culture.
　
Returning adoptee from the United States plays with a young Chinese orphan

Many families go a step further and bring their children back to China. They often sign up for what are called homeland tours.

American Sharon Whitney adopted two daughters from different Chinese provinces. She says there are many reasons for bringing the girls on a homeland tour this summer, at the ages of seven and 10.

"To connect with their home culture, to see where they came from and have some understanding where they came from, and without doing it in a heavy-handed way, show them what their life might have been," said Whitney.

The Whitney family is on a tour with a U.S. company called China Cultural Exchange. Minghua He says she founded the company because of her experiences as an adoption⁵ coordinator⁶. She saw families wanted to return to China, and orphanage³ employees were curious about what happened to children after they were adopted.

"I think it's more important just to show them how the child is being loved and cared for, and that's very important for the orphanage staff," added Whitney.

Parents say child development specialists advise them to bring children back before adolescence⁷. Younger children are more likely than teenagers to remain open and excited about the experience, like nine-year-old Sarah Lapino.

"We're going to see the Great Wall of China," said Sarah. "I'm excited about that because I think that's the longest wall."

A homeland tour group usually visits traditional tourist sites, such as the Great Wall or a panda reserve. Then the group disperses⁸ so families can go to orphanages where their children lived.

Many families do not actually go inside the orphanage. The experience might be overwhelming⁹ for a child, and many orphanages have strict rules about who can enter. Instead the family will take the orphanage director and other staff out for a meal, and exchange gifts.

Lapino's older sister, 13-year-old Julie, is looking forward to meeting the staff when she visits her orphanage in Anhui province.

"We're giving them some photo albums of us when we were younger and how we grew up basically," she said.

The other big feature of an orphanage visit is going to where an abandoned child was found. Most adoptees know they were left in front of a police station or a temple, near a factory or at a train station.

He says through these visits a family can gradually unravel¹⁰ the history of a child.

"For example talking to the orphanage director you find out this child was brought over by staff from the civil affairs office," said He. "Then we go visit the person from the civil affairs office, and that person says, 'I remember the person who brought her over to us.' Then from that we track down the person who actually found her. So there are many interesting moments linked with that orphanage visit."

In rare cases, families meet the birth parents of their child. Jane Lietke runs the non-profit Our Chinese Daughters Foundation¹¹. She knows 11 families over the past 12 years who found their child's birth parents by going to where they were abandoned and talking to local people.

Lietke says that because of China's population control laws, most orphans are not orphans in the sense of having no living parents.

"I call the children over-quota kids more than orphans. A family had one girl, then they had a second girl and they wanted to have a boy," said Lietke. "Then they abandoned the second child and waited to have a son. Is that child really an orphan? No, they've got siblings¹², they've got aunts and uncles, they've got grandparents."

China limits most couples to having just one child. There is a cultural preference for boys, so most abandoned babies are girls.

Tour guide He says the most important goal of homeland tours is to give adopted children a sense of pride in their Chinese identity¹³.

"We have many girls when they came to China they didn't want to come, but when they came to China they say, 'Mom, I love Chinese food! I love the rice, I love to use the chopsticks, I love the Great Wall.' And the Mom is just so happy, she says 'Ming, you're right, they fall in love with China,'" said He.

He says that homeland tours require a lot of money and preparation, but families who come back to China always feel it was worth the effort.

1 orphan   

n.孤儿；adj.无父母的

参考例句：

• He brought up the orphan and passed onto him his knowledge of medicine.他把一个孤儿养大，并且把自己的医术传给了他。
• The orphan had been reared in a convent by some good sisters.这个孤儿在一所修道院里被几个好心的修女带大。

2 orphans   

孤儿( orphan的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The poor orphans were kept on short commons. 贫苦的孤儿们吃不饱饭。
• Their uncle was declared guardian to the orphans. 这些孤儿的叔父成为他们的监护人。

3 orphanage   

n.孤儿院

参考例句：

• They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage.他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。
• They gave the proceeds of the sale to the orphanage.他们把销售的收入给了这家孤儿院。

4 orphanages   

孤儿院( orphanage的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It is Rotarians running orphanages for children who have no homes. 扶轮社员们为没有家的孩子办孤儿院。
• Through the years, she built churches, hospitals and orphanages. 许多年来，她盖了一间间的教堂、医院、育幼院。

5 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

6 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

7 adolescence   

n.青春期，青少年

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the process of going from childhood to maturity.青春期是从少年到成年的过渡期。
• The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。

8 disperses   

v.（使）分散( disperse的第三人称单数 )；疏散；驱散；散布

参考例句：

• With controlled pace and sequence of construction, excess heat disperses. 在对施工进度和程序加以控制之后，多余的热量就能散掉。 来自辞典例句
• Normally, turbulence disperses such pollutants quickly. 正常情况下，湍流将迅速驱散这类污染物。 来自辞典例句

9 overwhelming   

adj.势不可挡的，压倒的，无法抵抗的

参考例句：

• The flood was overwhelming and the city was soon drowned.洪水来势凶猛，很快这个城市就被淹没了。
• The act was adopted by an overwhelming majority.该法案以压倒多数通过。

10 unravel   

v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开

参考例句：

• He was good with his hands and could unravel a knot or untangle yarn that others wouldn't even attempt.他的手很灵巧，其他人甚至都不敢尝试的一些难解的绳结或缠在一起的纱线，他都能解开。
• This is the attitude that led him to unravel a mystery that long puzzled Chinese historians.正是这种态度使他解决了长期以来使中国历史学家们大惑不解的谜。

11 foundation   

n.[pl.]地基；基础；基金会；建立，创办

参考例句：

• The foundation of the university took place 600 years ago.这所大学是600年前创办的。
• The Foundation gives money to help artists.那家基金会捐款帮助艺术家。

12 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

13 identity   

n.身份，本体，特征；同一(性)，一致

参考例句：

• He never revealed his identity.他从未暴露过自己的身份。
• He showed his identity card and went in.他把工作证亮了一下就进去了。