Introduction

The Recipe

The Exercise

Within The Context Of Bryn Mawr

The Template

Guiding Prompts

Materials

Debrief Questions

Bibliography

Critical Theory

Creative Works related to Hybrid Identities

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Introduction

Since the inception of international adoption, the US has totaled over 250,000 adoptions according to the State Department. The majority of these international adoptions come from Asia, and around 90 percent of adoptive parents are white whereas the adoptees are predominantly people of color (Anderson, 2015). However, narratives in mainstream media and literature fall short of addressing the inevitable and complex racialization that transracial adoptees experience while growing up in the West. Consequently, public understanding of adoptee identities from white and communities of color alike is still limited.

 

According to Professor Kimberly Mckee “Far too often, adoption focuses on the creation of families and the transcendent nature of color-blind love and multiculturalism.” Many adoptee studies scholars like Mckee believe that adoptee narratives are simplified stories of saviorism, luck, and gratitude (Cherot 2009; McKee 2019; Sorensen 2014). Professor Eli Sorenson further argues that these narratives often focus on the adoptive parent perspective and neatly conclude with the adoptees gratefully recognizing the West as their only home. While the real-life adoptee grows up standing at a crossroads between the West and their birth country, these narratives erase their subjectivity, rendering their identity the symbol of the perpetual helpless orphan. Consequently, the adoptee community is condensed into a monolithic political image of liberal inclusivity and meritocracy (McKee 2019; Sorensen 2014).

 

Without autonomy in their subjectivity and confidence in their complex identity, many adoptees struggle alone growing up without the necessary tools to navigate a white supremacist society. The adoptee is constantly othered as many struggle to find a community, having to choose between white communities where their race is overemphasized, or communities aligned with their racial origins, where they face accusations of cultural inauthenticity.

 

Therefore “Recipes To Take To The Womb,” also known as The Adoptee Cookbook project, is a collective effort to reclaim adoptee subjectivity away from the orphan symbol and illustrate the variety of adoptee identities in contrast to monolithic images of the adoptee community. The project is designed to put into practice the process of leaning into the ambiguity, fluidity, and hybridity of marginalized identities; many postcolonial scholars argue that through this process, one breaks free from a white supremacist and monolithic view of culture.

 

This project requires creative action in accordance with Professor Lisa Lowe’s argument that ethnicity is defined “not only for cultural inheritance, but for active cultural construction.” This emphasis on creation will move beyond what Lowe identifies as “unmediated vertical transmission from one generation to another” which many adoptees have lost. Instead, it reorients towards cultural production that Lowe recognizes can be “partly inherited and partly modified, as well as partly invented”.

The Recipe

According to post-colonial theorist Stuart Hall, “We should think, instead, of identity as a ‘production’ which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not outside, representation.” This concept of ‘production’ validates the hybridity of transracial adoptees as it perceives cultural identity and production beyond the rigidity and homogeneity rooted in colonialism.

 

The production of recipes and food reflects the reproduction, invention, and revision, of culture and cultural identities seen throughout history. Many dishes that contain ingredients and cooking practices from multiple global regions were born out of colonialist forces in the same way that hybrid identities, including adoptees, develop as well. Some examples of hybrid dishes coming from Western military occupation include Spam Musubi, Banh Mi, Korean Army Stew, etc (Li, 2019; Vu 2019).

The Exercise

Cooking can be self-taught, it does not have to be passed down. Like any art, it is a reflection of the body and the soul and has the malleability to represent the cultural complexities of the self.

So in this exercise, you will be making a self-portrait in the form of a recipe. You will be given an empty recipe template but within it, you can create whatever you feel best encapsulates your identity, a metaphorical self-portrait.

 

The template will include a baby photo of yourself where an image of the dish would appear. While adoptee identity has been rendered to the object symbol of an orphan, the text and image you create will allow you to give voice to this child. By presenting your authentic self-portrait, you are illustrating the complexity of adoptee identity in conjunction with the photo. You bring back subjectivity to the image of the adopted child. You show that you are a person beyond a symbol and that your story doesn’t end with your adoption.

 

You are allowed to write, draw, and create a collage with any of the other documents/materials provided. The structure of the exercise, as well as the recipe template itself, moves beyond simply text or image. This mixed-medium approach was inspired by writers such as Gloria Anzaldua, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, and Layli Long Soldier, who would be considered to have hybrid identities and used a mixed-media approach to better encapsulate their identities.

 

The use of other documents, quotes, and images, is used by many writers and artists, including transracial adoptees, to express and stand in place of their loss of culture due to colonialism. This includes many adoptee works such as Litany for the Long Moment by Mary-Kim Arnold and The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See. Feel free to look through the slideshow provided for inspiration from the button above.

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Within The Context Of Bryn Mawr

Despite the existence of adoptees on campus for decades, in the past many adoptees stated there was no identifiable adoptee community on campus. Only recently in the last two years has the adoptee community had the opportunity to become a visible identity and affinity group on campus.

 

However in order to advocate for themselves at a PWI (Predominantly White Institution) such as Bryn Mawr, many marginalized communities on campus have to appear as a united front. Consequently, individual contexts are at risk of being lost, and communities can be reduced to monoliths. It is important to understand that while people may have shared experiences shaped by current systems of power, they also have individual story and background that has led them down a path of resistance. Marginalized identities may stand as a united front but that does not give others the excuse to ignore individual contexts and the uniqueness of identities.

By illustrating transracial Asian adoptees are not monoliths, this project also aims to demonstrate more broadly that anti-racism at Bryn Mawr should not simply mean listening to one story, but a responsibility to conscious and continuous interaction with communities and hearing their many stories.

Guiding Prompts:

• Fill the page with words answering this statement: Being an adoptee is ___.

• Write about a timeline of events in your life.

• Write about a specific moment (use timestamps if you like).

• Write a dialogue between two people (could be a text exchange).

• Write instructions (literal or figurative).

• Write directions.

• Write a list of questions.

• Write equations.

• Write a series of overheard quotes, (over the past week, today, in the moment).

• Write a letter.

• Write an application.

• Draw.

• Draw a map of yourself.

• Draw diagrams or graphs (use labels if you like).

• Use quotes, words, or letters from any of the newspapers/magazines.

• Make a list of your favorite things.

• Make a list of your least favorite things.

Materials: 

Materials for use:

• Pencil

• Pen

• Glue

• Scissors

• Markers

• Collage materials

  • Maps

  • Workbook pages

  • Book pages

  • Adoptee documents

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Debrief Questions: 

• Describe your piece and how it is a self portrait?

• How is your piece different or similar to others pieces and what does that mean?

• How does your piece respond to the question: What does it mean to you to be an adoptee?

• How did the conversations you had while the piece contribute to your understanding of other peoples identity?

• What did you gain from this activity?

• Do you have any suggestions for how I should conduct the workshop in the future?

Bibliography

Anderson, Kayla N., et al. "Discussions about Racial and Ethnic Differences in Internationally Adoptive Families: Links with Family Engagement, Warmth, and Control." Journal of Family Communication, vol. 15, no. 4, 2 Oct. 2015, pp. 289-308. Taylor & Francis Online, https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2015.1076420. Accessed 2 Aug. 2023.

 

Inamine, Elyse. "Food Is Identity. For Korean Chefs Who Were Adopted, It's Complicated." New York Times, 31 July 2022. New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2022/07/31/dining/korean-adoptee-chefs-food.html. Accessed 2 Aug. 2023.

 

Li, Ang. "Asian American Chefs Are Embracing Spam. But How Did the Canned Meat Make Its Way into Their Cultures?" TIME, TIME Magazine, 28 May 2019, time.com/5593886/asian-american-spam-cuisine/. Accessed 2 Aug. 2023.

 

Lowe, Lisa. "Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Asian American Differences." Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics, 4th ed., Durham, Duke UP, 1999, pp. 60-83.

 

McKee, Kimberly. Disrupting Kinship: Transnational Politics of Korean Adoption in the United States. Urbana, U of Illinois P, 2019.

 

Sorensen, Eli Park. "Korean Adoption Literature and the Politics of Representation." Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas, vol. 12, no. 1, Jan. 2014, pp. 155-79. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/pan.2014.0001. Accessed 1 Mar. 2022.

 

Vu, Duy. "From Scratch: Bánh Mì, a Symbol of Culture and Possibilities." The Shorthorn, 13 Nov. 2019, www.theshorthorn.com/life_and_entertainment/from-scratch-b-nh-m-a-symbol-of-culture-and-possibilities/article_fadb2b58-0433-11ea-a5ae-7334bd49d73e.html. Accessed 2 Aug. 2023.

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Critical Theory 

• Ahokas, Pirjo. "Challenging the Color-Blind American Dream: Transnational Adoption in A Gesture Life, the Love Wife, and Digging to America." American Studies in Scandinavia, vol. 45, nos. 1-2, 24 Nov. 2013, pp. 109-33. CBS Open Journals, https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v45i1-2.4903. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022.

• Chen, Fu-jen. "Asian Transnational Adoption: Subject and Trauma in Life Narratives of Korean Adoptees and Gish Jen's The Love Wife." Ariel-a Review of International English Literature, 2011, pp. 163-96. University of Calgary Journal Hosting. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022.

• Cherot, Natalie. "Storytelling and Ethnographic Intersections: Vietnamese Adoptees and Rescue Narratives." Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 15, no. 1, Jan 2009, pp. 113-48. SAGE Journals Online, https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800408325330. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022.

• Grice, Helena. "Transracial Adoption Narratives: Prospects and Perspectives." Meridians, vol. 5, no. 2, 2005, pp. 124-48. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40338674. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022.

• Hooks, Bell. "CHOOSING THE MARGIN as a SPACE of RADICAL OPENNESS." Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, no. 36, 1989, pp. 15-23. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44111660. Accessed 12 May 2023.

• Kim, Hyo. "Embodying the In-Between: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's 'Dictee.'" Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 46, no. 4, Dec. 2013, pp. 127-43. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44030712. Accessed 2 Aug. 2023.

• Lee, Richard M. "The Transracial Adoption Paradox." The Counseling Psychologist, vol. 31, no. 6, Nov. 2003, pp. 711-44. PubMed Cental, https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000003258087. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022.

• Lowe, Lisa. "Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Asian American Differences." Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics, 4th ed., Durham, Duke UP, 1999, pp. 60-83.

• McKee, Kimberly. Disrupting Kinship: Transnational Politics of Korean Adoption in the United States. Urbana, U of Illinois P, 2019.

• Mitchell, W. J. T. "Beyond Comparison: Picture, Text, and Method." Picture Theory: [essays on Verbal and Visual Representation], e-book ed., Univ. of Chicago Press, 1995, pp. 83-107.

• Sorensen, Eli Park. "Korean Adoption Literature and the Politics of Representation." Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas, vol. 12, no. 1, Jan. 2014, pp. 155-79. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/pan.2014.0001. Accessed 1 Mar. 2022.

• Sun, Lina. "Children of 'A Dream Come True': A Critical Content Analysis of the Representations of Transracial Chinese Adoption in Picturebooks." Children's Literature in Education, vol. 52, no. 2, 20 May 2020, pp. 231-52. Springer Link, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-020-09412-x. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022.

• Thomas, Valorie. "Mestiza Consciousness." The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, John Wiley and Sons, 2016. Wiley Online Library, https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118663219.wbegss236. Accessed 2 Aug. 2023.

 

Creative Works related to Hybrid Identities

• Anzalda, Gloria. Borderlands : the New Mestiza = La Frontera. San Francisco, Aunt Lute Books, 1987.

• Arnold, Mary-Kim. Litany for the Long Moment. Essay Press, 2018.

• Cha, Theresa Hak Kyung. Dictee. Berkeley, U of California P, 2008.

• Long Soldier, Layli. Whereas. Minneapolis, Graywolf Press, 2017.

• Ong, Monica. Silent Anatomies: Poems. Tucson, Kore Press, 2015.

• See, Lisa. ADULT BOOK CLUB the Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. New York City, Scribner, 2017.