| Lin's Finding Advertisement | |
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| When babies are abandoned in China, before they are put up for adoption, the province advertises in the newspapers to see if anyone will come forward and claim the baby. | |||||||
| Front page of the Guangxi Daily on the 10 February 2002, the date that Lin's finding advertisement appears.  |
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| Below is the advertisement which lists Guo Xiao Qiu as one of 26 babies at the Mothers Love Orphanage. Lin's birth date, and the date she was placed at the Hepu Childrens Welfare Institute, is highlighted: 2001 9 18. Dates in China are written backwards i.e. largest entity such as year first then second largest entity which is month followed by the day. (Addresses are done this way too from the largest to the smallest.)  |
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About half the babies on this particular list are now in Australia - we are trying to track them all down so they can keep in touch with each other if they want to when they get older. Acknowledgement to Aileen Berry from NSW Batch 6 for tracking this newspaper down and thanks to the Guangxi Daily. |
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A brief translation of relevant parts provided by Wenqing :- Guangxi Daily Feb 10 2002, in which Xiao Qiu's abandonment is advertised.
Announcement Guo Xiao Qiu, female, birth on 18th Sept. 2001, abandoned in the gate of Hepu Childrens Welfare Institute. As if anybody knows the inside story, please contact us in 60 days, otherwise the babies will be treated as abandonment.
Contact Person: Liu Guang Qi |
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A Note about Abandonment The word "abandonment" is a very emotive term but it is the term used in the official documents. "Relinquishment" is a term more appropriate to the likely situation. Because her birth parents are unknown to us, we cannot know their real motivation but the current social, political and economical situation in China, including the One Child Policy and extreme poverty in some areas, probably placed them in a position where relinquishing their daughter was the only option open to them. They are forced to do this anonymously as there are fines for "abandoning" a child. There is no formal system for relinquishing children for adoption in China. Abortion is free and genetic testing for gender is not available. For a baby to go full term and then be left on the day of birth, we can conjecture that the parents were hoping for a boy and needed a boy to look after them in their old age as there is no pension in China as we have in Australia. The fact that they did not let her die but instead placed her carefully on the steps of an orphanage shows that they cared for her and wanted the best for her but were too poor to keep her when their culture dictated that they needed a boy. We do not sanction this action but we understand the circumstances that would lead parents to this situation. China's particular set of policies make adoption very painful for birth parents and children because they are permanently lost to each. Relinquishment and mandatory removal of children from parents sometimes happens in Australia but adoption is now rarely anonymous and the trend is in fact for "open" adoption. Records must be kept so that children can track their parentage once they reach 18 if the adoption has not been an open adoption. |
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