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ABSTRACT
With the support of new sources from British and Hong Kong archives, this study casts new light on the post-war international adoptions of Chinese refugee children in the British colony of Hong Kong. It argues that while children were ‘saved’ and found families overseas, they were also used as pawns in a bigger political game. A way to delegate welfare for the Hong Kong government, a symbolic humanitarian concession vis-à-vis a strict anti-immigration policy for Britain, and an anti-communist propaganda tool for the United States, these adoptions also convey the competing power and population politics played over subject children by two multiracial empires: one in decline (the rapidly decolonising Britain), the other on the rise (the new cold war superpower).
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Colin Heywood and Joseph Askew for their constructive comments on this essay and Peter Gatrell for turning my attention to the history of the Chinese refugees of Hong Kong. Thanks are also due to the two anonymous reviewers of this journal. All factual mistakes and interpretations are mine. This work was supported by the University of Nottingham Ningbo China with a Research and Teaching Leave Grant.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
ORCID
Rosaria Franco http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1326-8116
Notes
1. ISS was set up in 1924, originally as International Migration Service, to assist transnational families created by migration. Lawrence, Twenty-Five Years, 4.
2. For international adoption as a form of child migration, see Lovelock, “Intercountry Adoption,” 907–49.
3. Lawrence, Twenty-Five Years, 9. In 1958–1960 other destinations, reached with the help of ISS HK and others, included Hawaii, Japan, Canada, Cuba, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Panama, Germany, and France. Hong Kong Public Record Office (Hereafter: PRO) HKRS 890-2-5 from [Department of Social Welfare] to J.D. Duncanson, Information Services Department, 23 Nov. 1960.
4. See Marshall, “International Child Saving”.
5. Lovelock, “Intercountry Adoption,” 907–08; Zahra, The Lost Children.
6. Hübinette, “From Orphans Trains,” 144–45; Klein, “Family Ties,” 143–90; Briggs, “From Refugees to Madonnas,” 129–59.
7. Choy, “Hong Kong Project,” 51.
8. Madokoro, “Refugee Families”.
9. Lovelock, “Intercountry Adoption,” 909–11; Zahra, Lost Children, 171–72.
10. For the concept, see David Pomfret's path-breaking research on the relation between ‘racialised childhoods’ and imperial rule in pre-war European empires in his Youth and Empire.
11. See Choy, “Hong Kong Project”; Rainor, Adoption, 23–24.
12. Tsang, Modern History, 180–81.
13. Hambro, Problem of Chinese Refugees, 142, 144; Hong Kong Government (HKG), Annual Report 1961, 25.
14. Gatrell, Making of the Modern Refugee, 186–89.
15. As detailed in n.a., Problem of People.
16. Hambro, Problem of Chinese Refugees, 145, 150, 165.
17. HKG, Annual Report 1961, 25.
18. Out of the 486 children that left Hong Kong between 1958 and 1960, 139 were ‘transit cases’, 121 were let go by their parents, and 226 were wards of social welfare. PRO HKRS 890-2-5 from DWS to Duncanson, 23 Nov. 1960; Lawrence, Twenty-Five Years, 8; Choy, “Hong Kong Project”.
19. Orphanages were one of the few early forms of colonial welfare. Midgley, “Imperialism, Colonialism, and Social Welfare,” 44.
20. HKG, Annual Reports [SWO] 1948-54, 6. SWO was set up in 1947 as a sub-department of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, but went on to become an autonomous Department in 1958.
21. Ibid., 7.
22. Ibid.
23. Tsang, Modern History, 23.
24. Pegg, Family Law, 278–79.
25. Not just in Hong Kong, but in other colonies with significant Chinese communities. See Pedersen, “The Maternalist Moment”; Pomfret, “‘Child Slavery’”.
26. Protection of Women and Juveniles Ordinance No. 1 of 1951.
27. Lo, Chinese Law, 1–2.
28. ‘The modernization of adoption law affected other British colonies. The topic appears still under-researched, but even a cursory examination of public records reveals post-war changes (for example, in Singapore).’
29. Local circumstances do not include the 1956 riots, which saw clashes between young Nationalists and Communists and alerted the government to the risk of neglecting the refugees’ welfare. On 10 October, when the riots unfolded, the Adoption Ordinance was ready to be issued (12 October). On the acceptance of the refugees, see n.a., Problem of People.
30. Lo, Chinese Law, 50‒51; Adoption Ordinance No. 22 of 1956; Pegg, Family Law, 283. See also The Adoption Act, 1950, 14 Geo. 6. C.26 in S. Seuffert (ed.), The Adoption Act.
31. The problem was regularly denounced in various governmental annual reports. For an early example, see HKG, Annual Report 1947, 79–82.
32. Not all Chinese were poor. The colony had an established local Chinese elite, when rich Chinese refugees from Shanghai joined them. See, for its formation, Sinn, Power and Charity; Carroll, Edge of Empires. On Shanghai's entrepreneurs, Wong, Emigrant Entrepreneurs.
33. British civil servants posted abroad preferred to adopt white children from the metropole, which became possible only in 1958. See The Adoption Act, 1958, 7 Eliz. 2. C.5. Otherwise, they generally neglected their own mixed-race, illegitimate children. See Hübinette, “From Orphans Trains,” 144; see also Pomfret, “Raising Eurasia”.
34. HKG, Annual Report [DSW], 1957–58, 6. Catholic Relief Services was among the top 10 organisations funded by the US government to provide aid overseas in the 1950s and 1960s. McCleary, Global Compassion, 24, 27.
35. PRO HKRS 41-1-9597, Memo 5102/56, Department of Social Welfare to Colonial Secretary, 21 March 1958. For the US laws enabling international adoptions, see Winslow, “Immigration Law”; Forbes and Fagen, “Unaccompanied Refugee Children”.
36. HKG, Annual Report [SWO], 1954–55, 8.
37. PRO HKRS 41-1-9597, from Florence Boester to Kenneth Keen, 17 Feb. 1958.
38. HKG, Annual Reports [SWO], 1948–54, 6–7.
39. PRO HKRS 41-1-9597, Memo 5102/56 … , 21 March 1958.
40. PRO HKRS 41-1-8651, from D.C.C. Luddington for Colonial Secretary to the British Consulate, Washington, 14 Sept. 1955.
41. See PRO HKRS 890-2-5, Memo from Graham Sneath, Attorney General's Chambers, to David W.B. Baron, Department of Social Welfare, 17 Nov. 1960, with enclosed note ‘Adoption Abroad of Children from Hong Kong’; and Adoption Ordinance No. 22 of 1956. For the older Chinese refugee children, PRO HKRS 890-2-5 from [DSW] to Duncanson, 23 Nov. 1960.
42. See Adoption Ordinance No. 21 of 1960. The procedure is explained in The National Archives, London (TNA), CO 1030/1320 from David W.B. Baron, Director of Social Welfare, to John C. Burgh, Colonial Office, 23 Dec. 1961, and the enclosed template form ‘Consent of Adoption of an Infant and Delegation of Rights of Guardianship for such Purpose’.
43. ISS was to influence the evolution of US law and internationally acknowledged guidelines on international adoptions, TNA CO 1030/1320 ISS GB, Annual Report 1959–60, 5–6; Winslow, “Immigration Law”; Choy, “Hong Kong Project”.
44. On colonialism and welfare, see Midgley, “Imperialism, Colonialism, and Social Welfare”; on Hong Kong as a non-settlement colony, see Tsang, Modern History, 20–23, 62; on its pre-war residual social policy, see Tang, Colonial State, 45–50.
45. N.a., Problem of People, 6. The financial implications of dealing with this humanitarian crisis inform all the report.
46. Ibid., 15.
47. Ibid., 15–16. More than 100 voluntary organisations, both local and international, had already been coordinated by DSW by 1956. Ibid., 39–40. For a historical perspective of non-state actors, see Lee, “Nonprofit Development in Hong Kong”.
48. For details on the British origins and internationalisation of WRY, see Gatrell, Free World, 77–140.
49. TNA HO 392/133 World Refugee Year, United Kingdom Committee, Progress Report (1 June–25 Nov. 1959), Appendix A: ‘Summary of World Refugee Year Activities of the Constituent Agencies’.
50. TNA CO 1030/1320 Memorandum “Hong Kong Refugees Adoption Project” enclosed in letter from Mrs C. Wheeler (chairman of ISS GB) to Lord Perth, Minister of State for Colonial Affairs, Colonial Office, 8 Oct. 1960.
51. Feast et al., Adversity, Adoption and Afterwards, 67, 68.
52. TNA CO 1030/1320 ISS GB, Annual Report 1959–60, 8–9.
53. TNA CO 1030/1320 “Lists Closed,” Liverpool Post, 17 Aug. 1961.
54. TNA CO 1030/1320 “Precious Lotus Finds Happiness,” Reynolds News, 17 Dec. 1961; the figure of 106 children, mostly foundlings, is given in Feast et al., Adversity, 1.
55. HC Deb 26 Feb. 1926 Vol. 192 cc934-5. See also Keating, A Child for Keeps.
56. Rossini, History of Adoption, 86.
57. The Adoption Act, 1958, 7 Eliz. 2. C.5.
58. More details on the refugee status of these people can be found in Peterson, “To Be or Not to Be”.
59. TNA CO 1030/1320 from Baron to Burgh, 23 Dec. 1961.
60. On British post-war immigration policy in context, see Paul, Whitewashing Britain; Hansen, Citizenship and Immigration.
61. See the comment by G. McGee to Mr Farran (20 Feb. 1962) to enclosure 56 in the index of TNA CO 1030/1320. For the legal position of dependants entering Britain, Commonwealth Immigrants Act, 1962, Section 2 (2b) 14 & 15 Eliz. 2. C.21.
62. TNA CO 1030/1320 from Baron to Burgh, 2 Nov. 1961.
63. Only further investigation would show whether the new refugee crisis experienced by Hong Kong in May 1962, as a result of the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward, had any influence on the ‘compromise’ achieved over Hong Kong children. The relevant correspondence available does not extend to that period. On the May crisis, see Dikötter, Mao's Great Famine, 240–41.
64. Financially, post-war Hong Kong could have hardly expected help from the metropole, especially as its economy recovered quickly. Tsang, A Modern History, 161–67.
65. Gatrell, Free World, 81.
66. US House of Congress, Refugee Problem, 38.
67. TNA CO 1030/1320 from Robert Black to R.W. Piper, Colonial Office, 5 Nov. 1960; PRO HKRS 41-1-9597 from D.W.B. Baron, Director of Social Welfare, to Mrs Joyce E. Fried, ISS Representative, 1 Oct. 1958.
68. TNA CO 1030/1320 Memorandum “Hong Kong Refugees Adoption Project”.
69. TNA CO 1030/1320 “Precious Lotus”.
70. TNA CO 1030/1320 ISS GB, Annual Report 1959–60, p. 4.
71. Gatrell, Free World, 81–82, 205.
72. Ittmann, Problem of Great Importance.
73. Between 1618 and 1967, 130,000 white children were shipped out to populate the colonies. Hübinette, “From Orphans’ Trains,” 141.
74. See Ittmann, Problem of Great Importance, 198.
75. For the risk of immigration of Chinese adult refugees, see selected documents in TNA CO 1030/1319.
76. These were illegitimate children born to the first coloured immigrants and, similarly to the situation on European continent and in Asia, from liasons between local women and US soldiers. For further details, see Goodman, “‘Only the Best British Brides’”; Lee, “A Forgotten Legacy”; Bland, “White Women”.
77. TNA CO 1030/1320 Memorandum “Hong Kong Refugees Adoption Project”.
78. They guaranteed, respectively, for 50 and 20 children. TNA CO 1030/1320 Memorandum “Hong Kong Refugees Adoption Project”; TNA CO 1030/1320 Report to the Council … by Joyce Moore, Dr Bernardo's Homes senior adoption officer, 1 Sept. 1960, 2.
79. US House of Congress, Refugee Problem, 20.
80. ‘International Adoptions,’ at Herman, “The Adoption History Project”.
81. Mark, Hong Kong, 204.
82. US House of Congress, Refugee Problem, 17; Lombardo, “United States,” 192–93.
83. US House of Congress, Refugee Problem, 18. Some of these US organisations funded smaller local organisations. See Chu, “From the Pursuit,” 364–65.
84. US House of Congress, Refugee Problem, 17; PRO HKRS 365-1-31 “HK ½ m. Reception Centre for Needy Children,” Hong Kong Working Committee for World Refugee Year, Quarterly Report, June 1960, 2.
85. Choy, “Hong Kong Project”.
86. Historically, Asian immigration was discouraged. Anti-Chinese immigration legislation included the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, only partially lifted by the 1943 Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act. It was not until 1965 that the immigration and naturalisation of Asians became possible. This was also the year when segregation ended in the United States.
87. Choy, “Hong Kong Project,” especially 49, 58–62, 62–63.
88. Hübinette, “From Orphans Trains,” 144–45.
89. Briggs, Somebody's Children, 150–58.
90. Klein, “Family Ties,” 143–90
91. US House of Congress, Refugee Problem, 29, 31.
92. PRO HKRS 41-1-9597, from Boester to Keen, 17 Feb. 1958, p. 1.
93. National Archives of Singapore (NAS), File Reference No. 65/66, Microfilm MSA 2784, Memo of Director of Social Welfare of Singapore, 10 Feb. 1955.
94. Dikötter, Mao's Great Famine, 240–41.
95. Lombardo, “United States,” 248.
96. Mark, “Problem of People,” 1152.
97. TNA CO 1030/1320 Inward Telegram 556 from Sir Robert Black to the Secretary of State for the Colonies; copied to Foreign Office, 23 June 1962.
98. TNA CO 1030/1320 from C.M. MacLehose to R.T.D. Ledward, 23 June 1962.
99. TNA CO 1030/1320 from Ledward to Willan, 6 July 1962.
100. N.a., “Chinese orphans greeted in U.S. by Robert Kennedy,” The New York Times, Thursday, 28 June 1962, 4; Ellen Key Blunt, “Chinese WAIFs To Come to U.S.,” The Washington Post, Part B 5 “For and about Women,” Tuesday, 19 June 1962, 5; n.a. “Bob Kenney greets orphan arrivals here,” Los Angeles Times, Thursday morning, 28 June 1962, Part II, 1, 3.
101. TNA CO 1030/1320 from Ledward to Willan, 6 July 1962.
102. TNA CO 1030/1320 Inward Telegram to the Secretary of State for the Colonies from Hong Kong, 13 June 1962.
103. TNA CO 1030/1320 HKG, Daily Information Bulletin, 19 July 1962, 2‒3.
104. Ibid., 3.
105. Ibid.
106. PRO HKRS 70-2-2 “Overseas Adoption of Hong Kong Children” [various DSW bulletins for 1963].
107. As reported in Choy, “Hong Kong Project”; and on the psychological study on the adoption outcomes of some of these children's adoption placements in Britain, see Feast et al., Adversity.