International adoption, also referred to as intercountry adoption or transnational adoption, is described as the procedure of having a couple or an individual legally and permanently become the parent(s) of a child from another country (Citizenship Canada, 2016). Interracial (sometimes said as transracial) adoptions, are different. This is the procedure when one adopts a child from a race different from their own (Nelson, 2016, xii). Often, international adoptions are also interracial adoptions. In this thesis, the terms international and interracial adoption are used when talking about Chinese-Canadian adoptees adopted by Canadian families.Three groups of people are commonly spoken of in this thesis: Chinese-Canadian adoptees, birth family, and the adoptive family. I recognize that there are many different ways to talk about adoptees, birth families and adoptive families. The terms adoptee, birth parents, birth siblings, adopted parents and adopted siblings are not used with any particular political significance, rather my use of these terms reflects which were most commonly used by the individuals I interviewed for this project. Additionally, these are the terms frequently used in the community and from the scholars from whom I draw my work.The adoptees referenced in this thesis are Chinese-Canadian adoptees. Many of these adoptees themselves do not identify solely as adoptees. Part of how they express who they are is by saying they are Chinese, Canadian or Chinese-Canadian. The term "Chinese-Canadian adoptee" used in this text is not used to contest the way someone may or may not identify but is simply a way of identifying the group of people who were adopted from China and brought to Canada after their adoption.