In Lisa Ko’s The Leavers we meet Deming Guo or Daniel Wilkinson, a Chinese American boy who was adopted as a young adolescent. In part one we get a sense of who Deming is and are introduced to the struggles he bears that may stem from the difficulty of being an interracial adoptee, starting with having his name changed. I have cousins who were adopted and have always known them to be a normal family just like mine, but I never thought of kids who are from a completely different country or culture and what they face in their lives.
Upon researching about interracial adoption, I came across a journal article that had studied executive function in adopted children from Russian institutions into Spanish homes. It was found that the adopted children had trouble with attention, planning, and their memory. The study discusses several factors and how those factors played out in the results such as if a child was institutionalized at birth or if they were brought in as an older child. From reading about Deming’s experience, my initial thoughts about the adversities of being an interracial adopted child led me to think more, “how does this affect the child psychologically and emotionally.” Deming had a hard time fitting in at school, at first had a battle of personal identity, along with later learning he had a gambling addiction, I was thinking, “well this must be a result of being adopted by a family of a different culture.” I never even thought how it could affect cognitive processes.
Thinking back on what I have read I am starting to put the picture together. If you grow up speaking one language and kind of knowing another, then are thrown into a culture that relies on that kind of known language, how attentive would you be to what is going on around you?
Ko, Lisa. The Leavers. Little, Brown, 2018.
Peñarrubia, María, et al. “Executive Function and Early Adversity in Internationally Adopted Children.” Children & Youth Services Review, vol. 108, Jan. 2020, p. N.PAG. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104587.
I completely agree with your statement about Deming and interracial adoptions. I can not even begin to imagine how it feels for someone to go through an adoption and let alone an interracial one. It must of been extra hard for him to adapt and to focus in school. With him not knowing what is going on in school, he turned to something language in not a huge factor.. I for sure would have a hard time focusing on the words around me if I could only understand a part of the time
I liked how your post addressed the identity crisis that occurs when you are growing up forced to learn a different language than you are familiar with. Being adopted when you are old enough to have already formed some of an identity through language, community, culture all based on your genetic parents and the life you lived with them. When then being adopted you have to almost forget the previous way of life you had when your adoptive parents are very different and implementing their way of life onto you. This creates a major conflict on the child not knowing which way to act and implements major stress on the child as they search for answers.
I enjoyed your context presentation a lot, you make a lot of good points that many people who are not adopted may not have realized while reading or taught them something new overall. Your point about a child struggling with identity after being adopted is well explained, I also like how you tied in his addiction. While he’s struggling with his identity after being thrown into basically a whole new world, he at the same time is discovering that he has this addiction which is just another obstacle that he has to work through while trying to figure himself out. Do you think this addiction may have been developed due to his struggle with self identity?
Hello, I work at an elementary school as a part time teacher and I have 4 students who are different races who have been adopted by white families. I think that there parents do a good job and teaching them that they have a different culture and identity from the rest of the family. One of the parents adopted 3 different kids but 2 are from China. She talked to me about how every year they celebrate the holidays that they do in China so that their children do not forget their heritage or their identity. She also told me that she keeps in contact with their foster parents in China so that she can learn more about their culture so that it can be apart of her life and still in her children’s life. That is an example of interracial adoption where parents are not ignoring what makes their child unique and nor trying to erase a big part of their life. Another family adopted a girl from Africa and she asked me advice on how to do her hair since her hair is much different from their daughter. They often talk about that she was adopted from a different country and they are trying to learn about her culture. It is important not ignore a child’s identity or change their names or try to only have them speak in English. Great work
It would be incredibly hard to be attentive especially If I was unable to understand all of what is being said. Personally, I struggle paying attention in classes now where I only know English. I could not imagine having to learn the classes in Spanish where I slightly understand the language.