Children of “A Dream Come True”: A Critical Content Analysis of the Representations of Transracial Chinese Adoption in Picturebooks

Abstract

This study offers a critical content analysis of thirty-six contemporary realistic picturebooks featuring transracial Chinese adoption. The theoretical framework of critical literacy highlights significant sociocultural implications of these portrayals: in particular, negative stereotypes and ideologies, in an attempt to call for inclusivity and respect. Though these adoption tales provide an opportunity for Chinese adoptees to explore sociocultural identities and for other young readers to perceive the world of adoption-created families from a different perspective, negative depictions of certain aspects suggest that transracial Chinese adoption narratives are highly contested in terms of how Chinese adoptees are viewed and what family configurations are valued. The stories sometimes omit or simplify the complexities and nuances involved in the practice, the voices of birth parents and adoptees are noticeably absent, and certain ideologies prevail in some adoptive narratives. The complex picture of what transnational adoption looks like and means for those involved needs to be more critically explored and extended by children’s literature researchers as unveiling discourses on belonging and exclusion are informed by values that will be passed on to the new generation.