Home(land) Décor: China Adoptive Parents’ Consumption of Chinese Cultural Objects for Display in their Homes

Abstract

American parents of children adopted from China frequently consume Chinese cultural objects for display in their homes. While parents defend this consumption for display as an effort to validate their children's ethno-cultural origins, they also reveal how it signifies and solidifies their own identifications with Chinese culture. As part of a larger research project examining China adoptive parents' evolving "Chinese" identities, this paper asks: Which parents "become 'Chinese'" through the consumption and display of Chinese cultural objects, and why? To answer this question, I conducted semi-structured indepth interviews with 91 Americans in the China adoption process and ethnographic fieldwork at two different field-sites: Families with Children from China (FCC) Chinese cultural celebrations and Chinese culture camps organized by/for China adoptive families. Focusing on the emergent and personal meanings that parents give to Chinese cultural objects, I demonstrate how these meanings both structure parents' consumption and yield a display differential. In doing so, I reveal that white European-American parents and mothers are most likely to engage in this consumption and display, thereby amending the three types of ethno-cultural identity consumption represented in the literature. Specifically, I expose the central role of race in ethno-cultural identity consumption; demonstrate that the collective category of reference for ethno-cultural identity consumption is not always an ethnic category (in this case, such consumption refers to a gendered category); and illustrate the ways in which global ethno-cultural identity consumption both appeals to and satisfies distinctly local constructs.

Residential Racial Diversity: Are Transracial Adoptive Families More Like Multiracial or White Families?*

“…Unlike the previous model, we compare transracially adopted children to children of interracial couples because qualitative research suggests that transracial adoptive parents often compare themselves to interracial families (Louie, ; Traver, ). Children of interracial couples are also a more appropriate comparison group when looking at the representation ratio as both subgroups of children are nonwhite.…”

‘Real’ Families

“…Color-blindness had emerged as a problematic 'progressive' response to assimilation ideology and practice, where color 'should not' and 'does not' affect people, experiences, and outcomes (Eng, 2010;Quiroz, 2007). While some respondents clearly embraced this perspective, there were also commenters such as Mr. Doug and others who explain that their children are encouraged to 'keep culture' by exploring their mixed cultural identity and asking questions in attempt to acknowledge that the adoptive family is bi-or multi-racial rather than monolithic (Jacobson, 2008;Traver, 2007). More rare but emerging in practice are adoptive parents who do not define family as hetero-nuclear and instead engage with birth parents as significant to the family (Duxbury, 2007;Pavao, 2005).…”

Gender, Space, and Objects in Divorced Families

“…Importantly, material objects can provide social actors with identity continuity and role clarity, particularly during life transitions. Cherished items can assist social actors as they maintain and revise roles (Kroger & Adair, 2008); further, these items can signify to others what parts of their roles are worthy of display (Traver, 2007). Therefore, a bedroom that is occupied by a child for many years may cause him or her to personally identify with the room and the objects found within it.…”

“…Adolescents and young adults in particular construct their bedrooms to highlight spatial arrangements and possessions that reflect their developing self-concept, tastes, opinions, and beliefs. If roles are manifest in objects and physical spaces (Belk, 1988;Bengry-Howell and Griffin, 2007;Jantzen, Ostergaard, and Vieira, 2006;Kroger and Adair, 2008;Noble, 2004;Traver, 2007), there needs to be further analysis of personal space and objects as a method of evaluating this social group"s experiences. The use of objects and spaces may seem like a superficial by-product of the role negotiation involved in divorce experiences, but, in fact, objects and spaces can represent visible role enactment and often can serve as salient locations that hold meaning for people who are reflecting on life transitions, and for people who are in a developmental stage where roles are being more clearly defined.…”