National Geographic - China's Lost Girls
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DVD details
Actor: Lisa LingBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 40 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-03-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: G75096
Studio: National Geographic Video
Product features:
- Due to cultural, social and economic factors, traditional Chinese preference leans toward boys, so girls are often hidden, aborted, or abandoned. As a result, tens of thousands of girls end up in orphanages across China. Today, more than one quarter of all babies adopted from abroad by American families come from China. Lisa Ling joins some of these families as they travel to China to meet their n
DVD Reviews of National Geographic - China's Lost Girls
DVD Review: feel-good piece that should have covered more
Summary: 3 Stars
Lisa Ling supposedly analyzes the phenomenon of American (solely white Americans here) adopting Chinese girls. This work is meant to show that the process is perfectly complimentary. Chinese girls need parents and American adults want children: the push factors are presented as equal to the pull factors here. Americans are teary-eyed about seeing their adoptive daughters for the first time and older Chinese-American girls are interviewed saying how happy they are to be in their current living situation. Many of the American parents have Southern twangs in this documentary, but there is no discussion on whether transnational adoption is more frequent in different regions of the United States. The film pays especial attention to gender oppression in China. It covers the "bare branches" dynamic in which the predominance of boys will lead to a lack of wives for the next generation of Chinese men. This work is clearly meant to make adopting Americans and adopted Chinese-American girls feel good about themselves. Lisa Ling, tacitly, stands as the bridge between the two parties. She symbolizes what these adopted girls can become. As a Chinese-American happily overseeing this process, it is as if she metaphorically gives her stamp of approval to this process.
But one of the crucial points in the piece happened near the end. A white American father says to Lisa Ling, "I'll see you next time on 'Ally McBeal.'" Lisa Ling tries to blow the comment off, but it smacks of very problematic racist-sexism. Yes, Lucy Liu and Lisa Ling share similar initials and Chinese ancestry. They even share the real name/stage name "Ling." Still, to lump the few Asian-American women in the media together is problematic. This smacks of the racist idea that "All Asians look alike." If the American man who made the comment is going to raise a Chinese-American girl then I am really afraid for girls of color in our country.
And thus, my concern is that this film does not cover the entire phenomena of adoption across borders and identities. While China is shown as irritated by their daughters, there is no discussion of why American parents are adopting abroad, rather than at home. Thousands of black, Native American, and Latino boys go unadopted in the United States every year and this film never asks the parents why they did not choose those children. Yes, one mother sends her daughter to Chinese dance lessons. However, these American parents never answer whether they have Asian-American friends or are sensitive to Asian-American issues. There is no probing into whether these adoptive parents truly support racial and gender diversity and equality in the US. I am worried that an Orientalism is being practiced here where Asian girls are stereotyped as "obedient" and "a model minority" to be molded by American hands. You can feel this dread when Lisa Ling looks at a Chinese baby girl and coos, "I want one." You would have thought she was talking about a pet, not a person. Further, she never says "I want to raise an Asian female, i.e. like myself." She never says, "Oh yeah, then again, if I were to have biological children, they'd be Chinese regardless." While Chinese practices are condemned, racism in America is never brought up. American parents never state what they will do to protect their new daughters from anti-Asian sentiment on our side of the Pacific.
Adoption is a win-win situation in which children in need unite with desiring parents. However, this documentary showed a skewed view of the process. I wish it had dug deeper and looked at all aspects of this matter. This issue is too important to be left as just a "feel-good" presentation.
Description of National Geographic - China's Lost Girls
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