Up the Yangtze, Across the Ocean

I wanted to reflect a little on the documentary we watched in relation to representation and my adopted siblings.  I know I have blogged about my adopted siblings before, but watching the video made me suddenly wonder if my sister would have grown up to work on a cruise ship or a tour bus or some other sickly patronizing tourist enterprise.  She was an orphan, after all.  An orphaned girl, who have even less chances of bringing themselves up well because in China they do prefer boys.

But I was shocked when , as I was watching he documentary, I had to stop myself from thinking of China as the place we "rescued" my little sister Vonne Mei from.  I had to stop myself from thinking patronizing thoughts of, "Oh I'm so glad we rescued my little sister from this country where no one would have given a shit about her, it's a good thing we Americans stepped in".  This thought made me wonder about representation of the Chinese in general.  We witnessed through the film the struggles of a very poor and desperate family, one that had to farm their teenage daughter out to work on a cruise ship for European tourists.  We also had representations of the Chinese that were working on the tour boat, as well as the young adults who were partying in the city.  Now I find myself think of the way I represent and think of my little eight-year-old Chinese sister, who by all rights is an American girl.  She speaks English (we tried to have her take Chinese classes, but she wasn't going for it), she dresses in regular clothes, goes to a private Christian school, and is fully aware of the fact the she is adopted.

It seems that adopting Chinese or African babies has become considered to be something of a fad, especially with celebrities.  Going off of Johnson and her discussion of "Indian" representation in literature, is this novelty of adopting foreign children our real-life way of lending "a dash of vivid coloring to an otherwise tame and somber picture" of modern life (Johnson 388)?  I know that the adopting parents care about the children, I mean, my parents certainly love my sibling very much and only adopted because my mother couldn't have any more children, but why China?  Why Africa?  Why do American parents have to travel overseas to get babies, when there are plenty of parentless children here?

Can Johnson's comment of introducing something foreign and exotic as a means of increasing interest and appeal be applied to adopting children?  To tourism?