N.Y. Times on Mathew Luce, Asian-American Identity and Transracial Adoption

Liz Webster

May 22, 2021

<em>N.Y. Times</em> on Mathew Luce, Asian-American Identity and Transracial Adoption

Reconciling Asian-American Identity Within Transracial Adoptions

New York, N.Y. Mengwen Cao photographed and interviewed New Yorkers who were adopted from Asia and grew up in white families in her piece, “Reconciling Asian-American Identity Within Transracial Adoptions,” published today in The New York Times (link).

Mathew Luce, now 25, in front of masks bought from Indonesia at his Roosevelt
Island apartment. Adopted from Indonesia by two dads, he grew up in New York.
May 2017. Photo: Mengwen Cao.

The Times reports:

After Mengwen Cao moved to New York from China, she started to feel like she was straddling two different worlds. To her friends and family back home, she had become “too American.” In New York, she said, she was “always a foreigner.”

Wanting to grasp what it felt like to grow up around family members who “don’t look like you,” she set out to photograph adoptees who were born in Asia and raised by white American parents for a series called “I Stand Between.”

An analysis by the Institute for Family Studies found that the proportion of adoptees in the United States with Asian backgrounds nearly tripled between 1999 and 2011, while the majority of adoptive parents were “white, older, well-educated and relatively affluent.”

Ms. Cao found that most of the people she met shared that concern over authenticity, that question of what makes a “real” Asian.

“It kind of indicates there’s only one real truth, but talking to them made me realize that there’s no one way to be Asian or American — or just a person,” Ms. Cao said. “It’s so important for us to embrace our differences.”

Mengwen writes:

Other interviewees agreed: Mathew Luce, who was adopted from Indonesia and lives on Roosevelt Island, doesn’t take insults or ignorant comments to heart. “I’m proud that I’m Asian, and I’m proud that sometimes I act white,” he told Ms. Cao. “It’s just me. That’s how I grew up.”

N.Y. Times on Mathew Luce, Asian-American Identity and Transracial Adoption (Feb. 14, 2019)

Video: Love Makes a Family

Jim Luce

May 21, 2021

We do not choose our families. We are issued parents at birth and may find ourselves with siblings whom we may or may not like. Blood makes you related, Love makes you family.

New York, N.Y. In the U.S. we sadly often shunt parents and grandparents into assisted living arrangements, where in most other countries the elderly are cherished. Blood makes you related, Love makes you family. The Bible states, For wherever two or more people are gathered together, there is Love.

The traditional family is an extended family. It usually includes parents, children, grandparents and elderly relatives. Extended families mean greater stability, continuity, love and support for each other.

Anyone, especially those in the gay community, can build their own families. They can be “traditional” with a spouse and adopted, biological, or surrogate children. They can be your best friends. Or, they can be any combination of either.

When asked “What can you do to promote world peace?,” Mother Teresa replied, “Go home and love your family.” World Peace begins with our families.

It is, indeed, Love that makes a family! On YouTube

Video: Love Makes a Family (May 21, 2021)

#Love #Family #Gay #LGBT #Lesbian #Adoption #Surrogate #friends #happy #instagood #life #baby #Grandparents #Elderly #Children #familytime #kids #cute #home #familia #momlife #parenting