On Asian Transnational Adoptees’ Self-Determination for Cultural Identification: An Analysis of Greg Leitich Smith’s Novel, Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo
Journal Title: Journal of Advanced Research in Social Sciences - Year 2022, Vol 6, Issue 1
Abstract
Transnational adoption from Asian countries to the US started in the 1950s. When Asian transnational adoptees first came to the US, they were encouraged to assimilate into white American cultures because many were adopted by white Americans, yet due to the spread of the ideal of incorporating adoptees’ ethnic background in parenting for the adoptees’ healthy identity development in the US, white parents have started encouraging their adopted children to know their Asian cultural roots. While white parents are trying to give their adopted children either American culture or Asian culture, what do Asian adoptees feel about their cultural identification? Isn’t it Asian adoptees themselves who need to decide their cultural identification? This article examines these questions by reading Greg Leitich Smith’s Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo from interdisciplinary perspectives. Combining the literary texts and the findings of adoption research in the fields of anthropology, sociology, and psychology, this article concludes that while white adoptive parents need to provide cultural experiences of their adopted children’s birth culture to their children, it is Asian transnational adoptees themselves who have the right to decide their cultural identification.
Authors and Affiliations
Kaori Mori Want
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP743697
- DOI https://doi.org/10.33422/jarss.v6i1.635
- Views 23
- Downloads 0
Expressive Speech Acts in Political Discourse: An Integrative Approach Perspective
The article aims at analyzing of the contemporary political discourse modality that has acquired specific characteristic features of highly emotional utterances based on deliberate or unintended violation of political et...
Compulsive Behaviors in the Workplace
Compulsive behaviors are psychiatric challenges that interfere with the regular life practices of those who exhibit them. This study qualitatively identified compulsive behaviors within three organizations located in no....
Utilitarianism: Greatst Impediment to Justice
This paper evaluates the validity of the foundational ethical conception of Justice and its contesting contradictory conception, Utilitarianism in framing the institutional structure of a nation. Thereby the paper assert...
Cak Nun, Maiyah, and Fandom: Participatory Culture Perspective
The emergence of Maiyah in the midst of the downstream community marked a new format for recitation focusing on horizontal dialectics based on contextual themes. It can be said that Maiyah is a recitation forum that disc...
Hate Speech in Myanmar
Freedom of expression can be abused in concerning with race, religion or nation, politics and gender and it transfers into a hate speech. This research intends to investigate the gap between the legal ideals and actual p...