Catherine Ceniza Choy
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814717226
- eISBN:
- 9781479886388
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814717226.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter examines the role of social service agencies, independent adoption organizations, humanitarian organizations, and individuals in facilitating Asian international adoption in the United ...
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This chapter examines the role of social service agencies, independent adoption organizations, humanitarian organizations, and individuals in facilitating Asian international adoption in the United States. The labor of many different agencies and organizations, it argues, has transformed the United States into an international adoption nation. It also highlights the efforts of charismatic individuals who popularized international and transracial adoption in the United States in the mid-twentieth century, including Harry and Bertha Holt, Nobel Prize-winning writer Pearl S. Buck, and screen siren Jane Russell. In addition, it considers Asian international adoption in the historical context of US immigration and how it created a vision of the world in which national, cultural, and political borders could and should be crossed. In particular, it looks at the work of World Vision, a Portland, Oregon-based organization founded by Christian minister Bob Pierce to facilitate international adoption from Asia. Finally, the chapter assesses the legacy of independent adoption programs in America.Less
This chapter examines the role of social service agencies, independent adoption organizations, humanitarian organizations, and individuals in facilitating Asian international adoption in the United States. The labor of many different agencies and organizations, it argues, has transformed the United States into an international adoption nation. It also highlights the efforts of charismatic individuals who popularized international and transracial adoption in the United States in the mid-twentieth century, including Harry and Bertha Holt, Nobel Prize-winning writer Pearl S. Buck, and screen siren Jane Russell. In addition, it considers Asian international adoption in the historical context of US immigration and how it created a vision of the world in which national, cultural, and political borders could and should be crossed. In particular, it looks at the work of World Vision, a Portland, Oregon-based organization founded by Christian minister Bob Pierce to facilitate international adoption from Asia. Finally, the chapter assesses the legacy of independent adoption programs in America.
