Hidden Gem in "Somewhere Between" (2011)
Somewhere Between came out in 2011. I never watched it then. My mom didn't either, though we knew of many adoptive parents who had viewing parties for it back in the day. It is now only $4 on Amazon Prime.
*This is NOT a movie review. Not being paid for this. The girls in the movie are my peers in a way, so I am certainly not trying to give my two-cents on their lives. What I want to point out, though, is my takeaway from the movie. The only major hidden gem--to me.
Why is it hidden? Because in the last decade (9 years) that this movie has been out, I have NEVER heard anyone ever mention it. I don't particularly think anyone who made the movie was intending for it to...mean anything really. It was more like a blind spot or an oversight.
In 2011, the Hunan Scandal had come out just six years before, but the world was entirely convinced that trafficking only applied to a handful of adoptees from just six Hunan orphanages. The CCAA was frantically insisting that none of the trafficked children were even adopted internationally. No one was aware of the extent of baby buying incentive programs or of Family planning baby confiscations. To America and to the rest of the world, the one and only story was the abandonment story. We did not question its validity. My papers said I was abandoned. They were even stamped! This movie was made in that era of ignorance.
*This is NOT a movie review. Not being paid for this. The girls in the movie are my peers in a way, so I am certainly not trying to give my two-cents on their lives. What I want to point out, though, is my takeaway from the movie. The only major hidden gem--to me.
Why is it hidden? Because in the last decade (9 years) that this movie has been out, I have NEVER heard anyone ever mention it. I don't particularly think anyone who made the movie was intending for it to...mean anything really. It was more like a blind spot or an oversight.
In 2011, the Hunan Scandal had come out just six years before, but the world was entirely convinced that trafficking only applied to a handful of adoptees from just six Hunan orphanages. The CCAA was frantically insisting that none of the trafficked children were even adopted internationally. No one was aware of the extent of baby buying incentive programs or of Family planning baby confiscations. To America and to the rest of the world, the one and only story was the abandonment story. We did not question its validity. My papers said I was abandoned. They were even stamped! This movie was made in that era of ignorance.
The script that every family heard over and over and over and over and over again went a little something like this:
1) girls are not valued in Chinese culture
2) The One Child Policy means they can only have just one kid, no exceptions
3) boys can take care of the parents when they grow older and can help out on the farm
4) thus all baby girls were abandoned, placed in public areas to be taken to the orphanage
5) this is why you should adopt from China
We have heard, breathed, and lived this story. In a way, it is the Chinese adoption community mantra, something we believed religiously. It was said by Chinese and Chinese American people at different FCC events, said at the adoption agencies, shared by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, NBC, National Geographic, BBC, etc. etc. etc. This is why I believe no one caught on to the fact...that in 2011, when this movie came out...that the translator in the movie LIED. Or misled. Or falsified. Or fabricated. Whatever words you want to use that mean the translator did not do her one and only job which was to translate.
At the one hour mark, Haley, one of the four adoptees that the movie follows, meets her birthmother for the very first time, confirmed by DNA evidence. The birthfamily (mom, dad, sisters, brother, etc.) come with a bouquet to the hotel room where the interview is set up to meet Haley and her American mom and dad. Guiding the American parents is a translator named Jane. Jane, a Chinese woman who works as a translator, who was very aware that she would be on camera, is seemingly the only one who can allow the American and the Chinese family to communicate.
When the American mom asks the birthmother about who abandoned Haley as a baby, the birthmother launches into a detailed history. She and the birthfather are visibly shaken and very, very happy to reunite with their baby girl, now grown up. Haley, the adoptee, also is at the mercy of the translator and like her parents, is unaware of what her birthmom is saying. The birthmom's story went something like this:
1) The birthmom gave birth to Haley
2) The birthmom already had three girls at home and was overwhelmed
3) The birthfather was visiting another village for some reason.
4) The birthmom gave Haley to relatives in the neighboring village with some food and a blanket
5) Their relatives in the neighboring village gave the baby to a childless couple who they knew about, though they didn't know very well
6) The birthfather came home and found out what happened. He was devastated. He went to the neighboring village to find Haley and bring her back home.
7) Unfortunately, the birthfather could not find her. He seemed to have a lot of regret. Had he not been away that day, Haley would have grown up with her birthfamily.
8) They eventually gave birth to a son and believed that Haley had been growing up with a local Chinese family. They were completely unaware that she had even entered an orphanage.
Now, the translator turns to the Americans and says something like this:
1) In the countryside, people try very hard to have a boy
2) The birthmom, with the help of some friends and family, went to the hospital to do an ultrasound to find out the gender of the baby
3) They found out that the fetus was a girl! Oh no!
4) Abortion in China is very common. Thus, they debated having an abortion, but ultimately decided that they would allow her to be adopted.
5) Having a boy is very important and the reason why Haley was abandoned by her family was that she was a girl.
After this scene played out, my mother and I paused the movie and looked at each other. Haley, on screen, seemed very upset. It was as she had always suspected...she was born a girl and was unloved because of her gender. The American mom, a firm pro-life believer, eagerly ate up the story the translator had spun. It seemed that they were satisfied with the explanation because it matched what they had always heard...with a few colorful details about abortion thrown in. (The version of this script that my parents heard did not mention abortion.) My mom and I went back and played this part of the movie over, unable to believe our ears. In the nine years that this movie had been out, why was it that no one had ever mentioned this discrepancy? In the birthmom's story, it sounded like they loved Haley and that the birthfather really wanted her to be returned after he found out what the birthmom had done in his absence. In the translator's story, it sounded like they didn't love her even in utero because she was a girl.
You may well believe that what the translator said hearkened to a greater truth about China...but why did the translator not translate what the birthmom said? Why was the truth being buried?
To add even more nuances to the story, a few minutes later, you learn that the three older birthsisters that Haley has, all know English. THEY KNOW ENGLISH. The oldest, then 24-years old, was even getting her Master's Degree in Chemistry. Well-educated. Female. One of three females. One of four children. During the one child policy where apparently, females were not valued...
So, let's recap:
The translator was aware that she was lying.
The translator was aware that the three sisters knew that she was lying.
The sisters knew the translator was lying and that she knew it too.
Yet, none of this was spoken out loud.
Why was the translator even needed at all if the sisters all knew English?
Why?
Well, I believe the translator could have gotten into trouble with the Chinese government if she actually translated the story. She was on camera the whole time, so she had to make sure she stuck to the script. I think the sisters knew they couldn't expose her on camera because maybe their family would get in trouble. I think the sisters had some comfort in knowing they could later tell the birthparents (who didn't know English) what exactly had happened in that room and could later tell Haley what the birthmom actually said. Maybe, because of the film crew, they were required to have a translator in the first place.
I felt terrible for Haley as she was welcomed by her extended family in the village. They set off fireworks and made a delicious home cooked meal for her and her family...all the while believing what the translator had told her. Unable to understand what had really happened until probably much later.
And yet...even my own father did not notice anything odd. My mom and I watched the movie a second time the next night (Amazon Prime let's you rent for three days for $4) with my father. We waited until this scene came up and then hit pause. We asked him if he noticed anything strange. He didn't. So we went back in the movie and replayed it for him. Then, he was able to understand what my mom and I had been obsessing over the last night: Oh my god. The translator had lied. That was not what the birthmom had said!
In some ways, I think Chinese propaganda was able to brainwash the world. My father was so used to hearing the translator's version of events, "the script," that when he heard it again, it confirmed his beliefs. He didn't notice the hiccough because to him, it sounded like the truth. I have even been keeping him up-to-date with everything I know about Chinese international adoption and he even watched One Child Nation...and still, he was unable to hear what was being said right in front of him. After we pointed it out to him, he was in shock.
This loyalty to this script is what, I believe, makes figuring out the truth in China so difficult. Why adoptive parents refuse to consider their adoptee's paperwork is fraudulent. Why some adoptive parents do not pause to think about the plight of the birthparents and instead want to label them all as backwards, sexist, third-world peasants...rather than as women who had to undergo so much. Rather than as pregnant women who had to run from a gang of ten police officers who wanted to forcibly abort her baby. Rather than as a mother who had her baby taken from her by the police. Rather than as a new mom who had to avoid punishment while doing the best she could for her baby and agreeing to allow the midwife or the neighbor or the doctor bring the baby to a second life. If we humanize the birthparents too much, some adoptive parents get insecure and wonder if they did the right thing and wonder if their child might want to go back if they learn they had been kidnapped or trafficked. This is why the script is so perfect. What perfection.
The script is able to:
1) convince people to adopt from China
2) absolve adoptive parents of moral qualms because the parents abandoned the babies and thus no feelings of having to "share" the adoptee
3) make the adoptee feel unwanted and unloved and thus make them less likely to dig around for the truth or want to find their birthparents
4) convince adoptive parents that they did a good and right thing
I am not saying adoption is bad.
I'm saying that this script was masterfully crafted.
And that it's still working twenty years later.
1) girls are not valued in Chinese culture
2) The One Child Policy means they can only have just one kid, no exceptions
3) boys can take care of the parents when they grow older and can help out on the farm
4) thus all baby girls were abandoned, placed in public areas to be taken to the orphanage
5) this is why you should adopt from China
We have heard, breathed, and lived this story. In a way, it is the Chinese adoption community mantra, something we believed religiously. It was said by Chinese and Chinese American people at different FCC events, said at the adoption agencies, shared by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, NBC, National Geographic, BBC, etc. etc. etc. This is why I believe no one caught on to the fact...that in 2011, when this movie came out...that the translator in the movie LIED. Or misled. Or falsified. Or fabricated. Whatever words you want to use that mean the translator did not do her one and only job which was to translate.
At the one hour mark, Haley, one of the four adoptees that the movie follows, meets her birthmother for the very first time, confirmed by DNA evidence. The birthfamily (mom, dad, sisters, brother, etc.) come with a bouquet to the hotel room where the interview is set up to meet Haley and her American mom and dad. Guiding the American parents is a translator named Jane. Jane, a Chinese woman who works as a translator, who was very aware that she would be on camera, is seemingly the only one who can allow the American and the Chinese family to communicate.
When the American mom asks the birthmother about who abandoned Haley as a baby, the birthmother launches into a detailed history. She and the birthfather are visibly shaken and very, very happy to reunite with their baby girl, now grown up. Haley, the adoptee, also is at the mercy of the translator and like her parents, is unaware of what her birthmom is saying. The birthmom's story went something like this:
1) The birthmom gave birth to Haley
2) The birthmom already had three girls at home and was overwhelmed
3) The birthfather was visiting another village for some reason.
4) The birthmom gave Haley to relatives in the neighboring village with some food and a blanket
5) Their relatives in the neighboring village gave the baby to a childless couple who they knew about, though they didn't know very well
6) The birthfather came home and found out what happened. He was devastated. He went to the neighboring village to find Haley and bring her back home.
7) Unfortunately, the birthfather could not find her. He seemed to have a lot of regret. Had he not been away that day, Haley would have grown up with her birthfamily.
8) They eventually gave birth to a son and believed that Haley had been growing up with a local Chinese family. They were completely unaware that she had even entered an orphanage.
Now, the translator turns to the Americans and says something like this:
1) In the countryside, people try very hard to have a boy
2) The birthmom, with the help of some friends and family, went to the hospital to do an ultrasound to find out the gender of the baby
3) They found out that the fetus was a girl! Oh no!
4) Abortion in China is very common. Thus, they debated having an abortion, but ultimately decided that they would allow her to be adopted.
5) Having a boy is very important and the reason why Haley was abandoned by her family was that she was a girl.
After this scene played out, my mother and I paused the movie and looked at each other. Haley, on screen, seemed very upset. It was as she had always suspected...she was born a girl and was unloved because of her gender. The American mom, a firm pro-life believer, eagerly ate up the story the translator had spun. It seemed that they were satisfied with the explanation because it matched what they had always heard...with a few colorful details about abortion thrown in. (The version of this script that my parents heard did not mention abortion.) My mom and I went back and played this part of the movie over, unable to believe our ears. In the nine years that this movie had been out, why was it that no one had ever mentioned this discrepancy? In the birthmom's story, it sounded like they loved Haley and that the birthfather really wanted her to be returned after he found out what the birthmom had done in his absence. In the translator's story, it sounded like they didn't love her even in utero because she was a girl.
You may well believe that what the translator said hearkened to a greater truth about China...but why did the translator not translate what the birthmom said? Why was the truth being buried?
To add even more nuances to the story, a few minutes later, you learn that the three older birthsisters that Haley has, all know English. THEY KNOW ENGLISH. The oldest, then 24-years old, was even getting her Master's Degree in Chemistry. Well-educated. Female. One of three females. One of four children. During the one child policy where apparently, females were not valued...
So, let's recap:
The translator was aware that she was lying.
The translator was aware that the three sisters knew that she was lying.
The sisters knew the translator was lying and that she knew it too.
Yet, none of this was spoken out loud.
Why was the translator even needed at all if the sisters all knew English?
Why?
Well, I believe the translator could have gotten into trouble with the Chinese government if she actually translated the story. She was on camera the whole time, so she had to make sure she stuck to the script. I think the sisters knew they couldn't expose her on camera because maybe their family would get in trouble. I think the sisters had some comfort in knowing they could later tell the birthparents (who didn't know English) what exactly had happened in that room and could later tell Haley what the birthmom actually said. Maybe, because of the film crew, they were required to have a translator in the first place.
I felt terrible for Haley as she was welcomed by her extended family in the village. They set off fireworks and made a delicious home cooked meal for her and her family...all the while believing what the translator had told her. Unable to understand what had really happened until probably much later.
And yet...even my own father did not notice anything odd. My mom and I watched the movie a second time the next night (Amazon Prime let's you rent for three days for $4) with my father. We waited until this scene came up and then hit pause. We asked him if he noticed anything strange. He didn't. So we went back in the movie and replayed it for him. Then, he was able to understand what my mom and I had been obsessing over the last night: Oh my god. The translator had lied. That was not what the birthmom had said!
In some ways, I think Chinese propaganda was able to brainwash the world. My father was so used to hearing the translator's version of events, "the script," that when he heard it again, it confirmed his beliefs. He didn't notice the hiccough because to him, it sounded like the truth. I have even been keeping him up-to-date with everything I know about Chinese international adoption and he even watched One Child Nation...and still, he was unable to hear what was being said right in front of him. After we pointed it out to him, he was in shock.
This loyalty to this script is what, I believe, makes figuring out the truth in China so difficult. Why adoptive parents refuse to consider their adoptee's paperwork is fraudulent. Why some adoptive parents do not pause to think about the plight of the birthparents and instead want to label them all as backwards, sexist, third-world peasants...rather than as women who had to undergo so much. Rather than as pregnant women who had to run from a gang of ten police officers who wanted to forcibly abort her baby. Rather than as a mother who had her baby taken from her by the police. Rather than as a new mom who had to avoid punishment while doing the best she could for her baby and agreeing to allow the midwife or the neighbor or the doctor bring the baby to a second life. If we humanize the birthparents too much, some adoptive parents get insecure and wonder if they did the right thing and wonder if their child might want to go back if they learn they had been kidnapped or trafficked. This is why the script is so perfect. What perfection.
The script is able to:
1) convince people to adopt from China
2) absolve adoptive parents of moral qualms because the parents abandoned the babies and thus no feelings of having to "share" the adoptee
3) make the adoptee feel unwanted and unloved and thus make them less likely to dig around for the truth or want to find their birthparents
4) convince adoptive parents that they did a good and right thing
I am not saying adoption is bad.
I'm saying that this script was masterfully crafted.
And that it's still working twenty years later.
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