For people in China, adopting Chinese children is getting easier
No longer are foundlings given the surnames “Party” or “State”
BACK IN 1991, when China passed its first stand-alone adoption law, state-run orphanages routinely gave foundlings the surnames “Dang” (meaning Party) or “Guo” (meaning Country). These unusual names marked children for life and were meant to. That way foundlings would not forget what they owed the Communist Party. Such names were banned in all orphanages only in 2012.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Crossing blood lines”
From the June 6th 2020 edition
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