Photographer Documents American Fathers Who Adopt Daughters in China

Photographer Documents American Fathers Who Adopt Daughters in China
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Laura Dang
September 1, 2015
Chinese photographer Zhang Ou documents American fathers with their adopted Chinese daughters in her photo series “Daddy & I.”
Ou has extensive connection with over 100 adoptive families, of whom she has photographed 80. The aim of her photo project is to start a conversation about these unique families’ culture, relationships and cross-cultural differences.
Ou’s statement on her photo series reads:
“By photographing adopted Chinese girls and their Western fathers in America, I try to capture the affection between a female child and an adult male. What is the nature of this complex relationship, especially when different ethnic and cultural backgrounds are introduced? Through the relationship of the emerging feminine power of the adolescent girl to the mature father, each image explores the relation of the two often divided cultures: East and West.”
Over 70,000 Chinese children have been adopted by American parents since 1991. The children were primarily girls who were given up for adoption due to China’s strict one-child policy and the cultural preference for boys.
Adoption rates gradually increased each year after Chinese Laws of Adoption were implemented in 1992. The laws required foreigners to provide proof of certificates and evidence of the adoptive relationship in court in order to adopt a child in China. The cost of adopting a Chinese orphan is about $20,000. Chinese adoption laws were revised in 2007, and as a result of its strict terms, American families had to wait a period of four years before adopting.
Ed Pauly and his daughter
Richard and his daughter
Douglas and 11-year-old Hannah
Allan Brazil and his daughter
Tim Hunt and daughter Willow
Kenneth LaPensee and 11-year-old daughter Amy
David Hershey and eight-year-old daughter Lydia
Source: News.163 via Shanghaiist
 
 
 
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