Writing POC 101

Adopted Chinese American Characters - @sunlake

Hello, I'm @sunlake. My mother is first generation Chinese and my dad is second generation Irish. I was adopted from China at fourteen months old and brought to the United States. I have friends who are also adopted from China who have similar experiences as me.

The #1 thing I hate is when people say to me, "So your mom isn't really your mom?" or "how much did you cost?" after admitting I'm adopted. It costs to have children no matter how you have them. When writing about someone adopted from China, please remember we weren't bought, we were adopted. We also often don't know who are our birth parents.

A lot people, Chinese and non-Chinese, assume I can speak mandarin, cantonese, some other Chinese language, or another Asian language. Once, my friend's mom started talking to me in toisanese at a soccer game. I was so nervous about offending her and saying I don't speak her language, that I let her go on rambling. I felt terribly afterwards and since then I've stopped people when they talk to me in a Chinese language. When you write, try making your adopted Chinese person not speak Mandarin. It can create a good conflict in the story, but also insure people know not all Chinese people speak a Chinese language.

Now for those common stereotypes. I am those Chinese girl stereotypes. I'm academically excellent and I'm an introvert. When walking to school one day, my friend commented on playing a soccer game against a team of mostly Asians. Her team won and she says it's because the mostly Asian wouldn't talk to each other. That's fine if they weren't talking to each other, but it's not because of their race. I played soccer and would scream my teammates name across the field. There are so many different reasons why people don't want to talk to each other. Race isn't one of the big ones. When writing your Chinese adopted child, try to break those stereotypes or have a mix of fitting them and not. This will create a unique character who isn't what you think.

Finally, what we think of our origins. It can be confusing when people are asking you what race you are in life. I'm technically Chinese and Irish American. My parents consider me to be, but I consider myself just to be Chinese American. I was born in China from two Chinese people. I probably don't have much Irish in me, so doesn't that make me Chinese American? My adopted-from-China friends with both European American parents wonder the same things. Are we Chinese American or our parents' race? To be honest, I don't know. Let your character choose what direction they want to go. You can create a good internal conflict with this or not use it at all. Just remember, we get confused by who we are.

I'm @sunlake, an American girl from China. People adopted from Chinese are not bought, may not know a Chinese language, don't always fit the Chinese-people stereotype, and aren't always sure of their origins. Thank you for reading these tips and I hope I helped you improve.