Q: I’m a new adoptee in the community & would like to know how I can begin to get involved?

A: Welcome! We are glad you are here. There are many methods through which all CCI members can get involved in the adoptee community. Here at CCI, members have access to all our free programs ranging from Facebook to in person get-togethers. You are also encouraged to participate in any of our ongoing projects / manuals. The amount of involvement one would like to have in the CCI community is up to the discretion of each member, so explore at your heart’s content!

Q: I’m an adoptive parent in the community & would like to know how I can begin to get involved?

A: Thank you so much for your interest! Because CCI is an organization for adult Chinese adoptees, we ask that the role of adoptive parents stay minimal. Adoptive parents are able to join the main CCI Facebook Group but are asked to refrain from commenting unless the adoptee has stated that they will allow all members to comment. The purpose for limiting parents involvement in CCI is to give adoptees the chance to lead within their own community. We also very much appreciate adoptive parent donations to CCI through PayPal to continue to provide programs and services well into the future. Donations will go towards maintaining the website and paying for upkeep. This is the best way for parents to support the community in which their children may one day become involved.

Q: How can I become involved in CCI leadership? 

A: Involvement in CCI Leadership is a major way that CCI provides members with professional development and the opportunity to foster critical transferable skills. Each year the CCI board will accept applicants and host interviews to fill open positions on the CCI board. Please see the CCI Board Member website page for further information on how to apply. We also often host Seasonal Internships, especially in the Summer months.

Q: I am a chinese adoptee interested in beginning a birth parent search. How do i start? Can you help me with a birth parent search?

A: We have recently been developing resources and platforms to support Chinese adoptees who are searching for the biological families. Our Birth Parent Search and Reunion Facebook Group offers a space for interested members of the community to share resources, suggestions, and experiences and offer mutual support. The group also provides resources such as podcasts and interviews of Chinese adoptees discussing their experiences with searching for biological family in China. We are also currently in the works for a comprehensive Birth Parent Search Resources packet, but in the meantime, visit our interim Birth Parent Search Guide. It will offer a number of strategies that Chinese adoptees have used to search for biological relatives, and it is up to you to decide which method works best for you. Unfortunately, we do not currently offer tailored or on-the-ground in China Birth Parent Searching services.

Q: Why are so many of our programs online?

A: The short answer is because we started as an online organization! Also, in many ways, technology is the mode of life for our generation.

But for a longer answer, sometimes, there isn’t a local Chinese Adoptee community to meet up with in person. Often, it can feel isolating and scary when you think no one can relate to what you are going through. While we acknowledge that one of the greatest things about the adoptee community is its diversity and that no two adoptees have the same circumstances, we believe that we do often share similar issues and topics for which exchange and dialogue may be beneficial.  For that, we offer adoptees a chance to immerse themselves in the international Chinese adoptee community online; an opportunity to offer and receive support through personal connection and open discussion; a platform to exchange resources, stories, and hope no matter where you are located. CCI also hopes to amplify Chinese adoptee voices and move the dialogue forward on the future of the Chinese adoptee community and on issues relevant to our members, and the best way to do this is by drawing together the full power of all Chinese adoptees, no matter the location. We are creating a community where we have the power to share our future and make our own contributions to the world.

At the same time, we acknowledge that a lot of our members want to see our programs moving off-line and into in-person spaces. To address this suggestion, we’ve created the local meet-ups program, which aims to bring the community, support, and values of CCI to in-person meet-ups

Q: Why is CCI China-specific? (In other words, why does CCI feel the need to distinguish from the greater international adoption community?)

A: Recently, there has been a movement within the international adoptee community to move beyond country-specific groups towards universal adoptee groups, because there was a feeling of being silo-ed in when, really, we share so much in common with all adoptees. We whole-heartedly support this movement and acknowledge the value in bringing adoptees together, no matter what country they are from.

However, at the same time, we also believe there is still a place for country-specific groups. While there is so much we can learn from the greater adult adoptee community, we believe that there are also aspects of being a Chinese adoptee that may be difficult for even other international adoptees to resonate with or give advice on, particularly in connection with the specific economic, social and cultural factors within China that led to large numbers of international adoptions. For instance, because of the illegality of having multiple children, many families may have resorted to abandoning children, many of whom were girls, in public places or at the gates of orphanages in hopes that they would be taken care of, rather than following procedure to give up the child through the government or through an agency. For this reason, whereas many Korean adoptees may request access to documents from their agency with which to search for biological family, most Chinese adoptees know neither the identity of our birth parents nor have a paper trail from the orphanage or the agency through which we were adopted, changing the nature of the search in critical ways.  In this sense, CCI gives us a space to discuss and reflect on particular aspects of our experiences that may differ in important ways from the rest of the global adoption demographic.

A China-specific group can also add insight into the peculiarities of living, working, studying, and/or traveling in China for those adoptees who are interested in visiting.

Q: I am an adoptee potentially interested in getting involved, but I do not necessarily want to talk about my adoption all the time. Is that possible?

A: Of course! It is true that many of our programs to tend to end up connecting to our adoptee identities one way or another, since at CCI, that is our major commonality and it is what has brought this community together in the first place. But in an equally important way, at CCI we recognize that being an adoptee is far from being our only identity. There is so much more to each of our individual stories and experiences. That's part of what we want to highlight in our motto "Same Beginnings, Different Paths..." To that end, there are many ways to meet other adoptees without having to talk about adoption all the time. Our global Pen-Pal program pairs you with an adoptee from around the globe so you can get to know all different aspects of their identity - not just those tied to adoption. Many of our local meet-ups are social gatherings, such as going to the museum, the movies, or that new restaurant that just opened up. Our Winter Gift Exchange pairs members up to exchange fun and silly gifts - anything from Harry Potter to paintings of dogs to baking and crafts. Also, consider writing something not adoption related for our seasonal E-magazine! It is always great to help others recognize that adoption is not the only part to our identities as well.