White Adoptive Parents' Selection and Use of Picture Books About China With Their Chinese Adoptees

• In Event: Roundtable Session 53
  In Roundtable Session: Curriculum Choices for Building and Understanding Complexity in and out of School

Abstract

The large number of Chinese adoptees placed into U.S. families attracts increasing attention from scholars about how adoptive parents, mostly white, help their adoptees foster birth culture ties. By introducing high-quality picturebooks about China into five white adoptive families and examining parents’ selection criteria and use of picturebooks with their Chinese adoptees, I conducted a case study to see the Chinese culture adoptive parents construct for their adoptees. The interim results from the study show some of parents’ selection criteria for the books. Parents want books that challenge negative stereotypes about China, and books that can help establish family bonds and construct a positive Chinese culture image for adoptees. They also care about the accuracy of information in stories.

Author

• Xiaoli Hong, University of Georgia - Athens