Yueyang, Hunan Province

by Mrs. Yannie Fan
( Edited by Richard Lathrop)

6-23-2000
 
Yueyang, Hunan Province
 
Because I was not able to get in touch with my friend in Yueyang, I helped myself out by calling the orphanage early in the morning upon my arrival in the city. Mr. Chang, Director of the Yueyang Social Welfare House, came to pick me up at the building of the Yueyang Evening News where I was unsuccessful in finding someone else who I had hoped could help me.
 
Mr. Chang was the first and only director of social welfare institutions in China that went to North America in 1996 as part of a delegation composed of several officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs. During the visitation, the Chinese delegation met officials from the headquarters of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and several U.S. Congressmen. One of the topics discussed was how to speed up the immigration and naturalization procedures for the Chinese children adopted by American families. During the same trip, the delegation paid visits to some families with Chinese children in Canada and the USA. Mr. Chang told me he was very impressed as to how well the children were doing after meeting the families. He said he had many beautiful memories of those visits.
 
The Yueyang Social Welfare House was founded in 1958 and started international adoption in 1992. Since then there have been over 500 children adopted by foreign families -- over 400 children in the United States and Canada and over 100 children in European countries.
 
We talked about all sorts of matters over breakfast. Mr. Chen, the Vice-Director of the Yueyang Social Welfare House, and a driver were also present. The two directors were both military veterans. I called Mr. Chen "Soldier Chen" to distinguish him from other Chens (as Chen is a very popular surname is China).
 
After I handed Mr. Chang the pictures of the five Yueyang adopted girls and their families as well as the letters from the families, I was very surprised to learn that there were two social welfare institutions with almost the same name in Hunan Province. One was in the City of Yueyang and the other in the County of Yueyang, the only distinction between them was municipality and township, in terms of bureaucracy. I was told the two institutions were about 28 miles (45 kilometers) apart.
 
It was disappointing to us all that only one girl out of the five girls was from Mr. Chang's Social Welfare House in Yueyang City, while the other girls were from the Social Welfare House in Yueyang County. It was embarrassing for me to make such a mistake that brought all these gentlemen from the City House here to the hotel. It must be surprising for the parents who were not aware of this difference at all and had been talking about Yueyang, their daughters' first home all the time. (Note: After returning to the U.S. I learned that some of the families had known that there were both City and County Social Welfare Institutions.)
 
Mr. Chang immediately recognized the child who was from his City House by her Chinese surname. After a lull in the conversation, Mr. Chang said with his affability and humor: "Still, we would like treat you as our friend even though you did not bring that many girls to us, nor any donation." While I had originally told families to only send me pictures of their adopted girls to minimize problems in carrying money or bulky items for my lengthy trip, families with children adopted from the Social Welfare House of Yueyang County did send me a cash donation that I wanted to pass along. Mr. Chang helped me call the people at the County House to come and meet me in the city. Meanwhile, Mr. Chang made an arrangement for me to visit the City House in the afternoon after nap time.

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