Wide-Net Searches for Chinese Birthparents

Lately, the "wide-net search" method of birthparent searches has taken the Chinese adoption community by storm. What is it? Why does it work? What's all this about different DNA tests?

If you're an active or even passive member of the online Chinese adoption community, you've likely been flooded these past couple weeks with Facebook posts (DNAConnect.Org Facebook Page) on the "wide-net search." You might have been aware of the name "Stuy," be it Brian or Lan Stuy, from their active participation in the Chinese adoption community since the very beginning, or from their role in the 2019 documentary, "One Child Nation."

In any case, here is my understanding and perspective of what the "wide-net search" is and why I believe it is the superior method of finding birthfamilies.

What is a "wide-net" search?

Technically anyone can organize one, but at the moment, these searches are being organized and conducted by the Stuys, grouped by orphanage region, and include search posters that aim to appeal to as many birthparents in China as possible. This means including Chinese adoptees over as great an age-range as possible with the most scenarios about what could have happened to them to lead to their ultimate adoption. The Chinese birthparents will then be able to contact Lan Stuy on WeChat, a Chinese social medial messaging application, and will be provided free autosomal DNA kits. These DNA results will be uploaded to GEDmatch, a free DNA database which accepts uploads from 23andMe, Ancestry, etc. that will be used to match with Chinese adoptees who have uploaded their DNA to GEDmatch as well.

Instructions for uploading DNA to GEDmatch from other DNA sites here.

Why does the wide-net search work?

The "old" way of searching was very individualized, with single families searching for single birthparents, often hiring a searcher for hundreds of dollars or traveling themselves to put up posters. Not only is the "old" way very expensive, but it also isn't very effective, because if that searching adoptive family were to happen across other birthparents on their search, their DNA wouldn't be collected since the adoptive parents/adoptee are ONLY concerned with finding a match for themselves. Thus we have many people coming across other people's birthfamilies and missing many opportunities for more matches for all. 

The "wide-net" search method aims to generate the maximum number of matches for the maximum number of adoptees. It also takes into account that for a large percentage of Chinese adoptees, finding/abandonment documents are not entirely accurate. These documents were never intended for the adoptee to use to find birthparents. The sole purpose of abandonment/finding documents was to make the international adoption of these babies legal. 

Thus, in cases where the baby was confiscated by family planning police or in cases where babies were taken at the hospital and sold to orphanages or in cases where a midwife brought the baby to the orphanage directly for a fee, "abandonment documents" needed to be forged. Using such documents as a treasure map to find birthparents is doomed from the start using the "old" way of searching.

Here's a common scenario: 

The adoptive family is raised with the belief their child was abandoned at the police station. 

The birth family knows they left their newborn with the aunt's family in the neighboring village, not knowing that later, the family planning police sent the baby to an orphanage, never knowing the baby was actually raised in a different country. So, when adoptive families create posters with highly specific information like "abandoned at the police station," the birthparents will think "that can't possibly be my child because that's not what happened." So they won't come forward and contact you, because the stories don't match up.

By having a "wide-net" search, where several more general scenarios are listed on the poster for many different adoptees about how the baby arrived to the orphanage, many more birthparents will come forward. Because we don't know what happened and they don't know what we were told. 

A "wide-net" search is able to bypass all this confusion and is able to work for people with clearly falsified documents as well, because it doesn't rely on an adoptee's information, but leads with a DNA-first approach. It is about attracting the most birthparents to be DNA tested, and then using DNA to match adoptees with birthfamilies.

I know what DNA is...but what's all this about some DNA tests being better than others?

Not all DNA tests are equal. Some DNA tests will be able to link you just one degree up and down, meaning just to your biological mom and dad, and to your biological children. 

What's so bad about that if you only really care about your birthparents? Let's say that your birthsister or birthbrother gave their DNA to find their lost sibling. Well, you'd be this close to finding your entire birthfamily and miss it because non-autosomal DNA tests will say there's no match.

With AUTOSOMAL DNA tests that are used by the non-profit DNAConnect (and thus the wide-net searches organized by the Stuys), you are able to find your birthfamily through an aunt, cousin, second cousin, third cousin, grandparent, parent, uncle, niece, nephew, etc. 

The one child policy affected many people in a single family and it is not uncommon for a single family to have been forced to lose more than one child. An aunt could be looking for their own child, and match with you instead which leads you to your birthparents.

If you think DNA is complicated, you're right. Most Chinese birthparents will only submit their DNA once and that's why it is important for them to be tested with a AUTOSOMAL DNA test. If they give their DNA to a non-autosomal DNA test, they will be unlikely to do another DNA test and so, essentially, the entire Chinese adoption search community is set back, because you've actually lost information and opportunities for people to match with their families. By testing birthparents with non-autosomal DNA tests, you are shutting the doors to many, many adoptees to find their own birthfamilies.

Currently, the default DNA testing done in China is a non-autosomal DNA test. This is the kind of DNA test used by MyTaproot, Baby Come Home, and the Nanchang Project. 

DNAConnect.Org uses autosomal DNA tests for more matches for more adoptees and birthfamilies. In the USA, adoptees should use autosomal DNA tests such as 23andMe or Ancestry and then upload their results to GEDmatch.

My Own Personal Thoughts

I think it's a very human thought in our community to say "screw you" or "fuck you" to all the other searching birthfamilies and searching adoptive families, because all you really want is all your money, time, and resources to just go towards YOU and YOURS. 

But the Chinese adoption landscape has already made the decision for you. With falsified records, trafficking routes, and baby buying incentive programs, attempting to unravel everyone's individual truth starting from nothing is an futile effort. Catching the most birthparents with the "widest net" is the only method that benefits everyone and the only method which lays the foundation for adoptees who might not want to search at the moment, but might in a couple years. It means that birthparents can be tested with autosomal DNA kits with no cost to them and it means that we gain a more accurate picture of what happened to us, the adoptees, as more reunions are made. It is far easier to learn the true story of what happened to us after the match and not before.

I will be participating in the wide-net search project and I encourage you to do the same. Visit DNAConnect.Org Facebook Page to learn how to participate.

The official post on "What Is Wide-Net Searching" by Brian Stuy can be found here: http://research-china.blogspot.com/2021/06/what-is-wide-net-searching.html