A River of Voices: Reclaiming Culture and Adoptee Stories Through Oral History Archives

Abstract

This poster presentation will focus on an MLISc thesis in progress, which explores the oral histories of the yī hái zhèngcè (one-child policy) transnational, interracial Adoptees who founded the Rising Adoptee Voices One-Child Policy Adoptee Symposium, hosted by NYU Shanghai since 2023. This community of adoptees have often been marginalized in scholarly and mainstream narratives about adoption, identity, and belonging, with Adoptee-driven scholarship being sparse. My work attempts to capture and convey the diversity of voices and stories as an act of love and community-building for past, present, and future transnational interracial Adoptees. I will examine the nuances of reculturation, the process of reclaiming original or Indigenous culture, Adoptee consciousness raising, and Adoptee community building, including the roles that storytelling and oral history archives have within these spaces.