Hong Kong Orphanage — Hong Kong Babies Home – Hong Kong Children’s Home — Hong Kong Adoptees
Finding Hong Kong Adoptees
The majority of us were adopted to families primarily in USA, UK, Canada and New Zealand. Most likely we were raised in a Protestant Caucasian family. We’re obviously not kids anymore. We keep finding more of us. It’s very rewarding and supportive to interact with others regardless of which orphanage you came from. Our challenges and experiences are similar.
If looking for American or Canadian adoptees, contact us at info@fanlingbabies.com
To see photos and read about some of our stories see: USA/Canada adoptees
If looking for UK adoptees, contact UK adoptees
Search for Birth Family
Some of us have found our birth families. The American adoptees were the first to start looking and thus have the most experience at finding birth families. We are the repository of collected materials and experience.
Contact us at info@fanlingbabies.com if you’d like advice on how to search for relatives and birth family. We can give you thoughtful tips on how best to approach your search so as to increase your chance of having a positive outcome. This is highly recommended before posting to websites such as the one we list below:
look4mama.com – search and post who you are and who you are looking for in Chinese or English
Hong Kong Adoption History
Why did so many babies and toddlers end up in Hong Kong orphanages during the 1950’s and early 1960’s? Hong Kong’s economy was devastated by WWII. It had no natural resources, yet a rapidly rising poor population. Refugees fled from China’s civil war and from the Great Famine of 1959-1961. In addition, Hong Kong citizens who fled to China during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, slowly returned home. Many of these people struggled to find jobs and thus were unable to care for their children. Housing was also woefully lacking in Hong Kong which led to extreme overcrowding and homelessness for many.
If you ask an older Hong Kong person, he or she undoubtedly knew someone who had to give up a child. A baby boy might find a home with a relative. For cultural reasons more girls than boys were given up which still continues to happen in Mainland China. Some things just don’t seem to change.
Why Adoption?
In the 1950’s and 1960’s, there was increased social awareness of the plight of these homeless children. By the late 1950’s, the Hong Kong government accelerated the approval of international adoptions as an acceptable solution. Families around the world opened their hearts and homes. A large number of foreign adoptions occurred during the 1960’s.
The Process
When a child was found, the Hong Kong Social Welfare Department conducted a search for parents or relatives. If none could be found, the child became a ward of the State. The child could then be put up for adoption. Often, the International Social Services (ISS) of Hong Kong facilitated these adoptions.
ISS Hong Kong estimated almost 3000 were adopted from the 1950’s through the 1960’s. Children found families in Hong Kong, Canada, United States, England, New Zealand, Australia and other countries. The majority of children were adopted into a transracial family but some went to a Chinese family. Today, there are relatively few foreign adoptions because of Hong Kong’s economic prosperity.
