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A thought for Chuseok: 'Keep families together!' |
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Ask Nathalie Lemoine, 37=
, a
French-speaking Belgian adoptee, artist and former activist who returned =
to
Korea in 1993, about her plans for this coming Chuse=
ok
and she starts a debate about the reasons behind international adoption. =
"Keep the members of families together. Don't
separate them and don't think international adoption is the only solution=
to
escape Korean social responsibilities," says Le=
moine,
talking about issues concerning domestic and international adoption, the =
lack
of a social welfare system and the problems inherent to "Everybody wants to do something to help 'adop=
tees'
returning back to their homeland, especially around =
Chuseok
or Sollal but why Koreans don't start to help=
their
own birth mothers or orphanages in the first place?" she said. For her, adopted Korean adults coming back are not =
as
disturbing for Korean society as the source of the adoption: Birth mothers
forced to give up their children because of a lack of social support. Through the media and the success of some sitcoms,
portrayal of adoption has often been distorted, and even though the subje=
ct
has become less taboo in some ways, working on awareness is still much
needed, she says.
ASK, an independent group for adoptees, organizes
activities that are geared principally toward that aim with activities su=
ch
as monthly forums where invited guests discuss and educate families and
Korean adoptees about current domestic social issues. Tammy Chu, 30, a
Korean-American adoptee filmmaker currently living in "If you look at how adoption used to be and st=
ill is
in this millennium where Within Korean families, mothers usually had no righ=
t to
put their children on the "hojok" (=
blood
lineage for family registry) which is a patriarchal right. Very often,
fathers don't want to take responsibilities and keep a child without his
mother in order to get remarried easily. The child is then usually sent a=
way
or abandoned by his father or the paternal grandmother. In many cases after some years, biological mothers =
search
for their children without being aware that they have lost every legal ri=
ght
to their children. "Serious social changes need to take place to =
keep
families together from the very beginning instead of believing that
international adoption is the easiest and best solution," Recent works of She hopes to help them realize the fact that they a=
re not
alone and that larger social causes might have forced them to relinquish
their child. As a filmmaker, she was approached by the Rev. Kim =
Do-hyun, the director of Koroot, a
guesthouse providing guidance for adoptees returning to He cites an example. "One adoptee woman came h=
ere
from "Men are cowards and avoid their guilt, trying=
to
forget their past in order to remarry and have a 'happy family' instead of
taking responsibilities as much as women would do," he said. Family values in Adoption issues are still under the social pressure=
of
blood lineage which leads to certain forms of discrimination. In 2004, the government declared May 11 as a nation=
al
adoption day. By next year, Koroot hopes alon=
g with
adult adoptees and adoption communities to unify their efforts and to
organize a better overview of all the different opinions from each group.=
In a more informal upcoming activity, Koroot
invites all adoptees and their friends to share a casual afternoon for Lemoine as much as Chu and Rev=
. Kim
believe that social changes are urgent in order to improve family happine=
ss
especially at the approach of Chuseok. For more information: www.adopteesolidarity.org,
www.koroot.org, www.chomihee.org (betweenasia@yahoo.com) By Vincent Sung |