“‘Am I in big trouble this time?’ Zou Kaiyun was bursting to ask a reporter yesterday afternoon. He claimed he didn’t expect this situation to arouse the attention of so many people.”

A woman’s story of adoption touches on all the cultural points that make the issue so salient:

“It is still a bit of a mystery to me how I wound up the mother of a child born half a world away to someone I will never know. What I do know is that I cannot imagine my life without my daughter, Madeline Jing-Mei. In October 2005, my husband, Jim, and I made the trip to China to pick up our nine-month-old baby and bring her home. Our ‘referral’ (the official document issued by the China Center of Adoption Affairs) stated she ‘was found abandoned at the gate’ of the Social Welfare Institute of Fen Yi County on the morning of February 9 and taken in by Li Min, a worker at the orphanage. Her umbilical cord was still attached. According to the note that had been left with her, she had been born one day earlier. The workers named her Gong Jing Mei. The report went on to describe her as ‘a lovely and healthy baby with chubby face, fair skin and smart eyes.’ We know nothing of her birth parents or why they gave her up. Chances are we never will.”

“Some sentences in the textbook include ‘I like the way of your coquetry,’ ‘Don’t leave tonight,’ and ‘Let me take off your clothes,’ in Chinese and Japanese.”

Novelist Amy Tan talks about her family, her writing, and the conundrum of China:

“‘The Bonesetter’s Daughter,’ not unlike your other novels, tells the story of an anxious American woman and her overbearing Chinese mother. How much of it is autobiographical?”

“I had a wonderful mother. And she was supportive of everything I did. From the beginning, she said I could become a homeless person.”

“Very funny.”

“I had a very demanding mother. I thought I disappointed her in every single way. She wanted me to be a concert pianist, and that would be on weekends. My day job would be brain surgeon. It’s kind of ironic that my mother wanted me to be a brain surgeon, because our family had so many neurological diseases.”

“Welcome to Hooters Beijing!” Marina Hyde gets a good look at one of Beijing’s newest imports:

“Lying toward the east of Beijing in the Chaoyang district, the Workers Stadium was one of the Ten Great Buildings commissioned in 1959 to mark the 10th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. These are somewhat different times, though, and so it is that a new face in town has parked itself right across the street. As this establishment’s waitresses shriek in unison at arriving customers: ‘Welcome to Hooters Beijing!’ Behold the new face of Chinese capitalism. And please try to stay looking at its face…
Hooters not translating as a pun in Mandarin, Rachel is unaware that the word emblazoned across her vest refers to something other than the owl that goggles away in its logo, as she takes orders beneath a large sign reading ‘Caution: blondes thinking’…”

Atom, the female drummer for Beijing band Hedgehog, talks about being a girl in a band:

“I think any girl who plays in a band is special… I started to like rock ‘n’ roll in college because Xiao Wu, the drummer of Queen Sea Big Shark introduced me to some really good stuff. Rock ‘n’ roll is like looking at yourself in a mirror — you see who you are…
My father wants me to be famous overnight like the ‘Super Girls.’ But I think the Super Girls add nothing to our culture at all. They’re just a fad, people without good music becoming famous.”