美国长大的中国女孩找到其身世

Chinese Girls Raised in America Find Their Identity 美国长大的中国女孩找到其身世

An American journalist who adopted a young Chinese girl 18 years ago is using her daughter's story to tell about abandoned children from China.

Maya Xia Ludtke, 19, was a baby when her birth parents left her in a small town outside Changzhou in the province of Jiangsu. Melissa Ludtke, an award-winning journalist for Sports Illustrated¹ and Time magazines, brought Maya to her Massachusetts home in 1997.

Over the past two years, Ms. Ludtke has helped her daughter and another Chinese-born girl document their return to their rural home. Jennie Lytel-Sternberg, 19, was at the same orphanage² as Maya and was adopted by another woman living in the same part of the U.S.

"This is a very different exploration," Ms. Ludtke told VOA Learning English. The two teenage girls returned to the town where they were born to understand "how their lives might have been different." Along the way the girls took photos and recorded videos of their meetings with the people from the area around Changzhou. "It was their journey, not mine," Ms. Ludtke said.

Jocelyn Ford³, the former Beijing bureau chief for the U.S. National Public Radio's business show Marketplace, is Ms. Ludtke's partner on a project called Touching⁴ Home in China: In Search of Missing Girlhoods.

This project takes the photos and video collected by the girls to tell their story, and the stories of other girls like them. It is an electronic book written in six parts with many interactive⁵ tools that give extra information.

"I'm really trying to produce something with enduring value," Ms. Ludtke said.?

Throughout her career, Ms. Ludtke covered issues relating to women and girls around the world. The one-child policy was an attempt by the Chinese government to limit overpopulation. For the past several decades the government has punished parents who produce more than one child.

This has caused many parents to abandon children, especially girls. In Chinese society, male children are more likely to be able to get jobs that can support their families.

According to adoption⁶ expert Dr. Peter Selman of Newcastle University, over 120,000 Chinese children were adopted between 1992 and 2009. In the video when they first arrive in the town where they were abandoned -- Xiaxi -- Maya and Jennie seem shocked at how different their lives almost were.

"The town where we would've… grown up in... The people we probably would've met."

"Many, many healthy girls have been abandoned," Ms. Ludtke told VOA.  She explained that these stories are rarely told in China. Now she is seeking to share these stories in American classrooms. The project recently received a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to design classroom materials to be used with the electronic book.

Words in This Story

journalist – n. a person who collects, writes, and edits⁷ news stories for newspapers, magazines, television, or radio

adopt – v. to take a child of other parents legally as your own child

abandoned – adj. left without needed protection or care

orphanage – n. a place where children without parents can live and be cared for

bureau – n. an office of a newspaper or magazine that is not the main office but is in an important city

interactive – adj. designed to respond to the actions or commands of a user

enduring – adj. something that continues to exist in the same state or condition

grant – n. an amount of money that is given to someone by a government, company, or organization to be used for a particular purpose

1 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。

2 orphanage   

n.孤儿院

参考例句：

• They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage.他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。
• They gave the proceeds of the sale to the orphanage.他们把销售的收入给了这家孤儿院。

3 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

4 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

5 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。

6 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

7 edits   

编辑( edit的第三人称单数 )； 剪辑（电影、录音磁带、无线电或电视节目、书等）； 主编（报纸、杂志等）

参考例句：

• He edits the literary journal, Murmur. 他编辑了《私语》这本文学杂志。
• She edits the file and verifies that her change is correct. 她编辑这个文件并且验证她的变更是否正确。