Choy - Global families: a history of Asian international adoption in America

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Global Families: A History of Asian International Adoption in America

Catherine Ceniza Choy

A History of Asian International Adoption in America

Catherine Ceniza Choy

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York and London

www.nyupress.org

2013 by New York University

All rights reserved

References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Choy, Catherine Ceniza, 1969

Global families : a history of Asian international adoption in America / Catherine Ceniza Choy.

pages cm. (Nation of newcomers : immigrant history as American history)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8147-1722-6 (cl : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4798-9217-4 (pb : alk. paper)

1. Intercountry adoptionUnited States. 2. Intercountry adoptionAsia. 3. Adopted childrenUnited States. 4. AdoptionUnited States. 5. Asian Americans. I. Title.

HV875.5.C47 2013

362.734dc23 2013016966

New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.

Manufactured in the United States of America

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This book is dedicated to
my husband, Greg Choy,
my amazing partner in life and work

These acknowledgments must begin with my gratitude for the presence of Asian American adoptees in my University of Minnesota classes. Their belief that Asian American adoptees history, art, and contemporary issues matter to Asian American Studies, and vice versa, has been a major source of inspiration. While I was an assistant professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota, I had the privilege of being a cofounding member of the Asian American Studies Initiative and working with a dynamic group of colleagues, especially Josephine Lee, Richard Lee, Greg Choy, Jigna Desai, and Erika Lee. In the Department of American Studies, Elaine Tyler May and Lary May instilled confidence in me that this project would be meaningful for the region, the nation, and beyond. I completed this book while I was an associate professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where the mentorship of Evelyn Nakano Glenn and Tom Biolsi helped me strike a delicate balance among research, teaching, and service.

I am grateful for funding sources that affirm the critical role of the humanities in the twenty-first century. A Mellon Foundation Project Grant provided crucial support for the completion of Global Families. A UC Berkeley Institute of International Studies Manuscript Mini-Conference Grant enabled me to receive constructive critical feedback from Ellen Herman, Mark Jerng, Hertha Sweet Wong, Barbara Yngvesson, Beth Piatote, and Sarah MacDonald. A UC Berkeley Townsend Center for the Humanities Initiative Grant provided course relief as well as stimulating conversations with humanities faculty from various departments. Hertha Sweet Wong graciously served as my faculty mentor during the tenure of the grant. UC Berkeley research fellowships and grants in the form of a Committee on Research Faculty Research Grant, Humanities Research Fellowship, and a Research Assistantship in the Humanities as well as an American Association of University Women Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship offered much-needed funding support during the earlier research and writing stages.

Global Families would not have existed if not for the skillful work of curators, archivists, and librarians who have sustained archival collections and guided researchers with critical insight, especially Dave Klaassen and Linnea Anderson of the University of Minnesota Social Welfare History Archives; Gary Handman of the UC Berkeley Media Resources Center; Corliss Lee of the UC Berkeley Library; Lillian Castillo-Speed of the UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library; Mark Quigley of the UCLA Film and Television Archive; Anne Garrison of the Swarthmore College Libraries; Wendy Chmielewski of the Swarthmore College Peace Collection; and Jane Nakasako of the Japanese American National Museum. John Dougherty and Jennifer Jue-Steuck were dedicated and diligent research assistants. I am also grateful to the Armstrong Foundation project manager Jan Biagio; the photographer Cho Seihon; Jane Nakasako, the Japanese American National Museum digital asset and research coordinator; and the filmmakers Deann Borshay Liem and Marlon Fuentes for providing permission to use archival and film images.