美国国家公共电台 NPR Born In The U.S., Raised In China: 'Satellite Babies' Have A Hard Time Coming Home

Born In The U.S., Raised In China: 'Satellite Babies' Have A Hard Time Coming Home

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Many working parents in the U.S. struggle to find childcare for their young children. Typically, they turn to daycare centers or nannies. But for some Chinese immigrants⁵, one popular option has been sending their babies back to China to be raised by relatives. Now, some parents say they're regretting that decision. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang reports.

HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE⁶: After a long day of cleaning hotel rooms, Chun Zheng walks home through the alleys⁷ of Boston's Chinatown to a warm hug from her 5-year-old son, Jay.

CHUN ZHENG: (Speaking Mandarin⁸).

H WANG: "Are you a bad egg?" Zheng teases⁹ her son in Mandarin. Her daughter, Joyce, stands off to the side.

How old are you, Joyce?

JOYCE: Seven - almost 8.

H WANG: She and her brother Jay were born in Boston. But for the first years of their lives, they lived with relatives in China's Fujian province. Joyce spent more than four years with her aunt who she calls Ma.

What do you call your mom?

JOYCE: Mommy.

H WANG: So you have two mommies?

JOYCE: Yes.

H WANG: (Speaking Mandarin). I asked a Chun Zheng if she felt sending her children to China was one of her life's hardships.

ZHENG: (Speaking Mandarin).

ZHENG: "It's the worst hardship I've ever had to bear," she tells me. But at the time, Zheng and her husband were living in a small room. They shared a kitchen and a bathroom with strangers, and they worked long hours at restaurants to save enough money to eventually bring their kids back. So, she said, it was a choice they had to make. And Cindy Liu says many other Chinese immigrants have done so, too.

CINDY LIU: Anytime you eat at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, it's likely that somebody in that restaurant has a child who is in China at the moment.

H WANG: Liu, a psychologist at Harvard University, says no one knows exactly how many Chinese immigrant⁴ families send their babies to be raised in China. That's partly why she started a research project on what some psychologists call satellite babies. They usually come back to the U.S. in time to start school. Researchers say you can find similar arrangements among immigrants from South Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

LIU: I think a lot of times it's about survival¹⁰ and people's need for survival in a globalized era¹¹.

H WANG: Leslie Wang, a sociologist¹² from the University of Massachusetts - Boston, is another researcher on the project. Among Chinese immigrants, she says, sending satellite babies is a choice made by not just working-class parents but also those in the middle class.

LESLIE WANG: What they share culturally is that in China there's often the expectation that grandparents will take primary responsibility for caring for their grandchildren to allow their own children to work.

H WANG: Wang adds that growing up far away from their biological parents may not be traumatic for all satellite babies. But some social service providers, like Yoyo Yau of the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, are concerned that parents and children are often not prepared to be reunited in the U.S. Children may not be ready to leave their relatives in China. And those years apart sometimes lead to resentment¹³.

YOYO YAU: That separation is so heavy for the parent to bear because they say, I'm the parent here. You should love me. I love you. How we cannot do it? But the child just can't.

H WANG: That's why Yau has organized parenting classes and offered counseling¹⁴ for mothers and fathers of satellite babies, including Chun Zheng. She remembers visiting her children once a year when they were in China, but she says her daughter sometimes wouldn't come near her. Zheng says she would often fly back to the U.S. alone with her heart broken.

ZHENG: (Speaking Mandarin).

H WANG: "I felt like I couldn't breathe," she says. These days, she's trying especially hard to make up for the time she lost with her daughter, Joyce.

Do you miss your aunt and your family in China?

JOYCE: Yes.

H WANG: Last year, Joyce wrote an essay for school about why her mother Chun Zheng is her hero. And she says she wants to stay in the U.S. for school.

JOYCE: My auntie says when I grow up, that I can go back to China to work, and she will go wherever I go.

H WANG: Researchers say they don't think this satellite babies phenomenon is going anywhere as long as affordable¹⁵ child care stays out of reach for many immigrant families.

Hansi Lo Wang, NPR News, Boston.

1 mute   

n.哑子，默音字母，弱音器；adj.哑的，无声的，沉默的；vt.减音，减弱；vi.（鸟）排泄

参考例句：

• He is mute on the subject of social system.他对社会制度的问题保持沉默。
• Her daughter was mute after a serious illness.她的女儿在一场重病之后失去了说话能力。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 version   

n.版本；型号；叙述，说法

参考例句：

• His version of the events is pure supposition.他对这件事的说法纯属猜测。
• What is your version of this matter?你对这件事情的看法 怎么样？

4 immigrant   

adj.(从国外)移来的，移民的；n.移民，侨民

参考例句：

• Life in the USA was very hard for almost every new immigrant.美国的生活几乎对每一个新移民都很艰难。
• I'd like to obtain some information about applying for an immigrant visa.我想取一些申请移民签证的资料。

5 immigrants   

n.移民( immigrant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Illegal immigrants were given the opportunity to regularize their position. 非法移民得到了使其身份合法化的机会。
• Immigrants from all over the world populate this city. 这个城市里生活着来自世界各地的移民。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 alleys   

胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径

参考例句：

• I followed him through a maze of narrow alleys. 我紧随他穿过一条条迂迴曲折的窄巷。
• The children lead me through the maze of alleys to the edge of the city. 孩子们领我穿过迷宫一般的街巷，来到城边。

8 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

9 teases   

v.取笑，戏弄( tease的第三人称单数 )；梳理（羊毛等）

参考例句：

• My boyfriend's brother is really out of it; he always teases us. 我男友的弟弟很无聊；他总是捉弄我们。 来自辞典例句
• The little boy teases for ice-cream. 小男孩不住地吵着要买冰淇淋。 来自辞典例句

10 survival   

n.留住生命，生存，残存，幸存者

参考例句：

• The doctor told my wife I had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.医生告诉我的妻子，说我活下去的可能性只有50%。
• The old man was a survival of a past age.这位老人是上一代的遗老。

11 era   

n.时代，年代，纪元，阶段

参考例句：

• We are living in the information era.我们生活在信息时代。
• We are living in a great historic era.我们正处在一个伟大的历史时代。

12 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。

13 resentment   

n.怨愤，忿恨

参考例句：

• All her feelings of resentment just came pouring out.她一股脑儿倾吐出所有的怨恨。
• She cherished a deep resentment under the rose towards her employer.她暗中对她的雇主怀恨在心。

14 counseling   

n.咨询服务

参考例句：

• A multimillionaire media magnate has shocked his employees with his candor by telling them all that he's putting his business affairs on hold to enter an alcoholism-counseling program. 一位身份数百万的媒体大亨，坦诚地告诉他全体员工他将暂时搁置他的事业以便参加戒酒班，令员工大为惊愕。
• She will need medical help and counseling to overcome the tragedy. 她将需要医疗帮助和心理咨询来平复这场悲剧。

15 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。