暗水蓝月Scarlett's observation about adopted children: May 14, 2011 据《英文虎报》报道，自上世纪90年代起，约有12万名中国儿童被全球17个国家中9万多个家庭收养，其中有大约7万人到了美国的新家庭。许多孩子当时已经记事。 According to a report from the Standard, about 120 thousand Chinese children have been adopted by more than 90 thousand families in 17 countries since the 1990s. Of these children, about 70 thousand went to their new home in the USA. Many could remember things then. 两年前，我初次见到被美国夫妇收养的中国儿童。大多数情况下他们会这样告诉孩子：“她和你一样来自中国，说你好啊。”和美国土生土长的孩子不同，这些被收养的中国孩子很少热情的冲我笑，或者和我玩耍。我不知道他们是真的不记得自己的中文名字了，还是不想提起。看着这些孩子的眼睛，我的心里好像打翻了五味瓶。一方面我为他们难过，因为他们忘记了自己是谁，也不记得那个承载着父母期望和祝福的名字。另一方面我为他们高兴，因为还有另一对父母同生父母一样疼爱他们，而且我想这么小的孩子长大后应该都不会记得曾经有另一个名字吧。 Two years ago it was my first time to see Chinese children adopted by American couples. Most time the parents would tell their child like “she is from China where you are from. Say hi~.” Different from America born children, they never gave me a big smile or played with me. I don’t know if they really could not remember their names or just did not want to memorize. Looking into their eyes, I felt like bottles of condiment spilled over in my heart. On the one hand, I felt sorry for them, because they forgot who they were and the Chinese name which probably carries a lot of expectations and wished from birth parents. On the other hand, I felt happy for them, because they had another pair of parents who loved them just as their birth parents would do; and children at their age will probably forget they used to have another name when growing up. 在收养孩子的问题上，中美观念相差甚远。中国父母会竭力保守秘密，不愿让孩子知道自己的身世。主要原因在于其一，不想让孩子因为被领养的身世觉得自己是个异类; 其二，恐怕孩子产生抵制心理，不接受养父母。美国人的做法则令我吃惊。他们会在孩子面前毫不掩饰的提及领养的事实。也希望找到孩子的生父母，以便以后患病可以从基因着手治疗。 Chinese and Americans differ a lot in their attitude to child adoption. Chinese parents will try their best to keep it as a secret mainly because of two reasons. First, they don’t want to make the child feel like an exception because of his/ her birth. Second, they are afraid that the child has emotional resistance and does not accept them. What American parents do is a real shock to me. They told about the adoption of the child in front of him/her; they also hope to find the birth parents, in case the child becomes sick and cannot be cured because of lack of genetic records. 希望被收养的儿童能够像多数普通儿童那样的长大。 I hope adopted children can grow up just as most ordinary children do.