2010-8-27 Man-Li coordinated a press conference for a documentary film “Wo Ai Ni Mommy”. The Sadowsky family had learned Chinese at LI FCC Chinese School with Man-LI from 2006-2008. The interesting thing is that Man-Li found out that Stephanie Wang, the director of this film, was her student 1983-1984 when Man-Li was studying in Youngstown, Ohio. Man-Li helped translate the press release kit and fact sheet to Chinese, and type the Chinese subtitle for the film.
Press release kit:
In the last decade, China was the leading country for U.S. international adoptions. Now, there are over 70,000 Chinese children being raised by American families. Eight-year old Fang Sui Yong, aka Faith Sadowksy, is just one of them. After being abandoned at 2, sent to a city orphanage for two years, and then taken in by a loving Chinese foster family, Faith's life is suddenly upended when she is adopted by Donna and Jeff Sadowsky, a Jewish family in Long Island, New York. WO AI NI MOMMY explores, for the first time, what it feels like to be adopted from the child’s perspective. This intimate and honest story is told in real-time by Faith as she tearfully parts ways with her birth culture, language and foster family—the only family she’s really ever known. WO AI NI MOMMY documents her struggle to adapt to her new life in America and offers a rare glimpse into a personal transformation that neither she, her American mother, nor the filmmaker could have ever imagined.
DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY Stephanie Wang-Breal
Broadcast Premiere on P.O.V. on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 10pm.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
WO AI NI MOMMY is a film that examines the complex gains and losses that are an inherent aspect of Chinese adoption.
China opened its doors to international adoption in 1992. In just fifteen years’ time, American families adopted over 70,000 children from China. 95 percent of those adopted were girls. Fang Sui Yong was just one of these girls. But she was one of few who had a voice. Unlike the majority of girls who are adopted as infants, eight-year-old Sui Yong is capable of expressing herself in both subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Through Sui Yong, we are able to get a real glimpse into the thoughts and feelings that are part of the child’s adoption experience. WO AI NI MOMMY reveals the emotional and cultural losses that Chinese children must go through in order to gain a new family.
The filmmaker met Donna and Jeff Sadowsky in July 2007. At the time, they were still awaiting feedback from the Chinese government about their dossier for Fang Sui Yong’s adoption. The Sadowsky’s discussed their decision to adopt another child from China, as well as some of the unknowns they were concerned about with this second adoption. After meeting face-to-face with the filmmaker over the next five months, Donna and Jeff agreed to allow Wang-Breal to follow them to China to document their entire adoption experience.
The first time Sui Yong enters the picture is quite heartbreaking. She is rigid and visibly unsettled by the scene unfolding in front of her eyes: a room full of expectant Caucasian parents holding Chinese orphans, young and old. We realize how difficult the moment is for this sensitive young girl and how it will forever impact the rest of her life.
After Donna and Faith try out a few nonverbal exchanges, the filmmaker decides to jump in as a translator to facilitate their communication and to help Sui Yong feel somewhat connected to her new mother. We quickly see Sui Yong grow attached to Donna and her new family, language, and culture and witness her amazing ability to survive and adapt to her new life. However, throughout the acculturation process, Sui Yong acts out, letting her family know that she is not entirely comfortable in her new life.
Within 17 months’, Faith transforms into an entirely new person. She is a remarkably different girl from the Fang Sui Yong we met when she was first adopted in January 2008.
Filmmaker Statement
I am a first-generation Chinese-American. My parents immigrated to Youngstown, Ohio the year I was born. I am one of three girls. My parents had four children because they desperately wanted to have a boy. They always used to remind my sisters and me how lucky we were to be growing up in America and how different our lives would have been had they stayed in China. I did not fully comprehend this idea until I got my degree in Chinese history at Northwestern University.
During my studies, I started to peel back the layers of meaning behind my parents’ words and see just how distinct Chinese and Chinese-American cultures are from each other. If my parents had stayed in China, I would have led a completely different existence.
Growing up in a white, blue-collar town made me extremely self-conscious about my race. I was the only Chinese girl in my class of 450, and all I wanted was to be like every other Caucasian girl around me. I thought I was American, and that being Chinese would have meant I was a person who wore a pointed straw hat and spoke English with an accent. I bought into the Asian stereotype perpetrated by the media and my predominantly white surroundings.
I became interested in making a documentary about adoption from China in 1999. My best friend, Heather Loeffler, was teaching Chinese to adopted girls at the China Institute. After hearing her talk about these amazing girls, I began to wonder what it was like for them to grow up Chinese in America. They had been born in China, yet every day they were living and breathing a completely “white” experience. After interviewing over 100 families with children from China as research for the project, I realized I wanted to make a documentary that provided insight into the child’s experience, because that was a perspective that was notably absent.
I’m determined to make films that shed light on the real voices and faces behind the Chinese-American experience, which often goes undocumented. I hope to help people of other cultures and races understand that being people of color plays a prominent role in our lives. And that being Chinese does not necessarily mean we understand or represent the entire Chinese experience.
STEPHANIE WANG-BREAL
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/CINEMATOGRAPHER
Stephanie Wang-Breal has been producing stories for television since 1999. She has worked with various media outlets including CNN, MTV, the Biography Channel and UNICEF. In 2006, Stephanie produced and directed her first short, independent film, “From Infirmity to Firmness”, about the beneficial aspects of yoga for individuals living with HIV. This film screened at the San Francisco Short film festival in 2007 and it helped the Iyengar Yoga Institute of New York receive a grant from the Walt Disney foundation for their free HIV positive yoga class. WO AI NI MOMMY marks Stephanie’s debut as a feature documentary filmmaker.
JEAN TSIEN
CONSULTING PRODUCER
For the past 25 years, Jean has been editing and producing award-winning documentaries and narrative films. Her films include the 2001 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature. Scottsboro: An American Tragedy, the Peabody Award-winning film, Malcolm X: Make It Plain, for which she received an Emmy nomination for Best Editing, as well as the Peabody and Christopher Award-winning film, Travis. Jean’s most recent work,
Please Vote for Me received the 2007 Silverdocs Sterling Award for Best Feature Documentary. She has also received a Golden Reel for her role as ADR Supervisor on the Academy Award-winning film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Since 2001, Jean has served on the board for The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences. Jean also consults and advises young filmmakers who are launching their careers in the feature documentary domain.
ADOPTION FACT SHEET –August, 2010
• In 2001, there were 1.5 million adopted children in the United States, or 2.5% of all U.S. children.
• The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute’s 1997 Public Opinion Benchmark survey found that 58% of Americans know someone who has been adopted, has adopted a child or has relinquished a child for adoption.
• The Hague Convention, passed in 1993 and implemented in the U.S. in 2008, seeks to avoid human trafficking and protect children’s safety, promote transparency in the process by requiring agencies to disclose fees and expenses in writing, and provide adoptive parents with adoption certificates and other paperwork that eases children’s entry into their new homeland.
• Though U.S. citizens adopted nearly 13,000 children from 106 different countries in 2009, a little over two-thirds of all children came from only five sending countries: China (23%), Ethiopia (18%), Russia (12%), South Korea (8%) and Guatemala (6%).
• South Korea has placed over 100,000 children in the United States since 1958. China has placed more than 70,000 children, 91% female, with families abroad, 70 percent of them American. While the exact number of U.S. children placed for adoption in other countries is not reliably reported, adoption experts put the number at 500 annually a decade ago.
• In 2006, the Chinese government proposed a new set of rules requiring that parents must meet certain educational and financial requirements, must be married, be under 50, not be clinically obese, not have taken antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication in the past two years and not have any facial deformities.
• “Families with Children from China” provides a network of support for families who've adopted in China and to provide information to prospective parents. There are currently over 100 chapters throughout the United States.
• The estimated cost of adopting from China is $20,000-25,000.
• While inter-country adoption may be the most visible category, the majority of American adoptions actually come out of foster care. About 135,000 children are adopted in the United States each year. Of non-stepparent adoptions, about 59 percent are from the child welfare (or foster) system, 26 percent are from abroad, and 15 percent are “voluntarily relinquished” American babies.
• Domestically, the percentage of infants given up for adoption has declined from 9 percent of those born before 1973 to 1 percent of those born between 1996 and 2002.
• Adoption costs tend to differ according to the origin, race, sex, and age of the child, as do waiting times involved, with white American-born baby girls costing the most and older black boys the least.
• Adoptive mothers tend to be older than mothers who have not adopted children. 51% of adoptive mothers are between 40-44 years of age compared with 27% of mothers who have not adopted. Eighty-one percent of adoptive mothers are 35-44 years of age compared with 52% of non-adoptive mothers.
• Although never-married persons aged 18-44 years are less likely to have adopted children compared with those who have been married, there are about 100,000 never-married women and 73,000 never-married men who have adopted children in 2002.
• Currently Florida is the only state that bans LGBT adoption. Some states, such as Mississippi, allow a man or woman to adopt alone but will not allow second-parent adoption by a same gender partner. The state of Utah prevents all unmarried couples from adopting.
• Same-sex couples raising adopted children are older, more educated and have more economic resources than other adoptive parents. An estimated 65,500 adopted American children are living with a lesbian or gay parent.
“我愛你, 媽咪! ”是一部由美國 華裔Stephanie Wang-Breal (王思您)在 2009年導演的影片, 長76分鐘，英語及普通話/粵語對白，英文字幕。2010年8月31日(週二)晚上10時將在公共電視臺P.O.V.（Point of View）首映
在過去的十年中，美國是國際收養中國孤兒的領先國家。現在，有超過七萬個中國兒童被美國家庭所領養。八歲的芳穗永，英文名 Faith Sadowsky，只是其中之一。穗永在兩歲時被棄養，在市立孤兒院待了兩年之後，被送到一個充滿愛心的中國寄養家庭四年之後，穗永的生命突然產生了巨變，因為她被住在紐約長島的一個猶太家庭薩都斯基夫婦唐娜和傑夫領養。“我愛你, 媽咪! ”是第一部從孩子的角度來探討被領養是什麼感覺的影片。
這是一個親密而誠實的故事，真實地拍攝了穗永她如何哭著離開生育她的文化語言和她當時所知道的唯一家庭-寄養家庭。
“我愛你, 媽咪! ”這部影片紀錄了她在美國如何適應新生活，也提供了難得一窺的一個女孩完全的轉變，這是她的美國媽媽及電影製片人當初也無法想像的。
導演和製片人：Stephanie Wang-Breal王思您
製片顧問：Judith Helf 及Jean Tsien
編輯：GiGi Wang
攝影導演：Donny Tam 及 Stephanie Wang-Breal
原創音樂：Paul Goldman
製片的說明
“我愛你, 媽咪! ”是一部通過對中國固有傳統的方面探討領養華童的利弊的電影。
中國在1992年敞開了國際收養的大門，在短短15年的時間，美國家庭領養中國兒童超過7萬。百分之95是女孩，芳穗永只是其中之一，但她是少數能發聲的女孩之一。不像其他大多數在嬰兒期被領養的女孩，八歲才被領養的芳穗永已經能夠用直接和間接的方式表達自己。通過芳穗永我們能夠真實一窺被收養兒童的思想和情感。
“我愛你, 媽咪! ”揭示了被領養的中國兒童必須經過情感和文化上的失去，以獲得一個新的家庭的電影，製片人在2007年7月認識薩都斯基夫婦唐娜和傑夫。當時，他們仍在等待中國政府對他們的申請領養芳穗永的反饋。他們一家人討論他們決定再次領養中國的孩子，以及他們對於第二次領養的一些擔心的事情。在接下來5個月面對面與電影製片人的考慮後夫同意讓 Stephanie Wang-Breal (王思您)跟隨他們到中國去紀錄整個領養的經驗。
第一次芳穗永在鏡頭前是很令人心疼的。她顯得瑟縮和明顯的焦慮面對她眼前展現的情景：一個房間擠滿了期待的白人父母抱著中國年幼及年長的孤兒。我們體認到對這個敏感的少女來說這是多麼困難的時刻，以及將如何永遠影響她的一生。
在唐娜和芳穗永嘗試了一些非語言的交流後，導演決定介入擔任翻譯，協助他們溝通和幫助芳穗永得以和她的新媽媽有點連接，我們很快地看到穗永發展出和唐娜，以及新家庭，新語言，新文化的關係，，並見證她驚人的生存能力和適應她新的生活。然而，在整個文化適應過程中，芳穗永以行為讓她家人知道她並不是全然的安適於她的新生活。
在17個月中，Faith轉化為一個全新的人她是一個與2008年1月我們看到的被領養的芳穗永完全不同的女孩。
製片人Stephanie Wang-Breal (王思您)聲明
我是第一代華裔美國人。我的父母在我出生的那一年移民到俄亥俄州青年市。我是3個女兒中的一個。我的父母有四個孩子，因為他們迫切希望有一個男孩。他們總是一直提醒我們姐妹我們是多麼幸運在美國長大，如果我們留在中國生活將是多麼不同。我沒有完全理解他們的話，一直到我在美國西北大學得到了中國歷史碩士學位。
在我學習時，我開始對父母的話背後的意義層層剝離，去看看中國人和美國華人的文化是多麼明顯地差異。如果我的父母當初留在中國，會導致我一個完全不同的存在。
在一個白人的藍領小鎮長大 使我對我自己的種族感到非常敏感。我是班上450人中唯一的中國女孩，我唯一想要的是要像身邊所有其他白種人女孩一樣。我認為我是美國人，我認為中國人意味著戴斗笠和說帶有口音的英語。我到我的媒體和白為主的亞洲環境犯下的刻板印象。
我在1999年開始對拍一部關於從中國領養兒童的記錄片感興趣。我最好的朋友希瑟洛弗勒在華美協進會教領養華童中文，在聽取了她對這些驚人的女孩談話，我開始想像他們如何在美國長大。他們出生在中國，但她們每天生活及呼吸完全“白人”的經驗。後來採訪100多個中國來的兒童作為我研究專案時，我意識到我要拍紀錄片，提供深入瞭解孩子的經驗，因為這個視角很明顯地缺乏。
我決定拍電影是要闡明美籍華裔經驗的背後真正聲音和面孔，因為常常沒有紀錄。我希望能幫助其他文化和種族的人明白有色人種在我們生活中起著突出的作，還有，身為中國人並不一定意味著我們理解或代表整個中國的經驗。
Stephanie Wang-Breal (王思您)（導演/製片人/攝影師）
王思您自1999年以來一直在為電視製作故事。她曾與各種媒體包括CNN，MTV音樂台，傳記頻道和兒童基金會。 2006年，王思您監製和導演她的第一部短片，是部獨立電影，“從老弱到堅強”探討關於瑜伽對愛滋病毒感染者的利益。這部電影在2007年三藩市電影節短片類放映，幫助紐約的 Iyengar 瑜伽學院收到來自迪士尼公司為他們”免費愛滋病患者瑜珈班”獎助金。“我愛你, 媽咪! ”這部影片是王思您作為一個專題紀錄片導演的首次亮相。
• 2001年，美國有一百五十萬領養兒童，佔所有美國兒童的百分之二點五。
• Evan Donaldson 領養研究所1997年的民意調查結果顯示: 百分之五十八的美國人或認識被領養的人，或自己領養小孩 ，或曾經有孩子讓人領養。
• 一九九三年通過的海牙公約，二零零八年在美國實施， 旨在避免人口販賣及保護兒童的安全。 為提高領養程序的透明度，要求各領養機構以書面形批露費用及開支，並提供養父母領養證書，及其他文件以簡易兒童進入他們的新家園。
• 雖然美國公民在2009年，由一百零六個國家領養了近一萬三千個兒童， 其中超過三分之二是從五個國家來的: 中國百分之二十三， 伊所匹亞百分之十八， 俄羅斯百分之十二， 南韓百分之八，瓜地馬拉百分之六。
• 南韓自一九五八年來，已安置超過十萬的兒童到美國， 中國安置七萬兒童到國外， 百分之九十一是女性， 百分之七十到美國。雖然美國兒童被領養到其他國家確切的數字未被報導，但是領養專家十年前提出的數字是每年五百位。
• 二零零六年中國政府推出新規則，規定家長必須符合一定的教育及經濟上的要求， 必須是已婚， 年齡不超過五十， 身體不能太肥胖， 過去兩年內沒有服用抗鬱藥或抗焦藥，不能有面部畸形。
• 領養華童家庭 (Families with Children from China) 提供那些去中國領養的家庭一個支持的連絡網， 並且提供資訊給準父母們， 目前在全美有超過一百個分會。
• 估計從中國領養兒童的費用是兩萬到兩萬五。
• 雖然國內領養是最明顯的種類， 大多數美國領養是由寄養而來的， 美國每年有十三萬五千個兒童被領養。 不是被繼父繼母收養的兒童中， 百分之五十九來自兒童福利寄養系統， 百分之二十六來自國外，百分之二十三是自願放棄的美國嬰兒。
• 在國內，自願放棄嬰兒的比例由1973年以前出生的百分之九，降到1996到2002出生的百分之一。
• 領養的成本因血統 種族 性別 兒童年齡而不同， 如等待時間不算， 美國白人女孩費用最高，黑人男孩最低。
• 領養母親的年齡，比沒有領養孩童的母親年長。 年齡在四十到四十四之間，養母佔百分之五十一， 沒有領養的只有百分之二十七。 年齡在三十五到四十四之間養母佔百分之八十一 沒有領養的佔百分之五十二。
• 雖然年齡在18到 44之間從未結婚的人，比結婚的人領養兒童少。 在2002年大約有十萬未婚的女士，及七萬三千的男士領養兒童。
• 目前佛羅里達州是唯一禁止同性戀者領養的一州， 有些州，例如密西西比州，允許男士或女士單獨領養， 但是不許同性戀者領養。 猶他州防止所有未婚者領養。
• 同性夫婦領養兒童的年齡較大， 教育程度較高， 經濟資源較豐。 估計有六萬五千被領養的兒童與一位同性戀的父或母同住。
NTDTV News
http://www.ntdtv.com/xtr/b5/2010/08/28/a423285.html#video
左起為錢孝貞﹑王思寧﹑徐瑞琰﹑郭曼麗在28日記者會上合影。（攝影﹕史靜∕大紀元）
領養華童紀錄片明晚公共電視台首播
【大紀元8月30日訊】（大紀元記者史靜紐約報導）由美國華裔王思寧(Stephanie Wang-Breal )導演的紀錄片「我愛你﹐媽咪﹗」將於明天（8月31日）晚上10時在公共電視台P.O.V.(Point of View)首映﹐這是第一部從孩子的角度來探討被領養是什麼感覺的影片。片長76分鐘，英語﹑普通話及粵語對白，英文字幕。
上週五（8月27日）﹐長島領養華童前理事郭曼麗邀請導演王思寧﹑製片顧問錢孝貞以及公共電視台P.O.V.助理導演徐瑞琰介紹紀錄片拍攝過程與感受﹐並呼籲華裔民眾屆時觀看影片。
王思寧表示﹐中國在1992年敞開了國際收養的大門，在短短15年的時間，美國家庭領養中國兒童超過7萬。95%是女孩，芳穗永只是其中之一，但她是少數能發聲的女孩之一﹐不像其他大多數在嬰兒期被領養的女孩。八歲才被領養的芳穗永已經能夠用直接和間接的方式表達自己。王思寧說﹕「通過芳穗永我們能夠真實一窺被收養兒童的思想和情感。」
出生那年隨父母自台灣移民到俄亥俄州的王思寧﹐是家中四名女孩中的第三個。她說﹕「因為父母迫切希望有一個男孩﹐所以他們總是一直提醒我們姐妹是多麼幸運在美國長大，如果我們留在中國生活將是多麼不同。我沒有完全理解他們的話，一直到我在美國西北大學得到了中國歷史碩士學位。」
王思寧說﹐1999年從在華美協進會教領養華童中文的好朋友那裡聽到她與這些女孩的談話，我開始想像他們如何在美國長大。他們出生在中國，但她們每天生活及呼吸完全是「白人」的經驗。後來採訪100多個中國來的兒童作為我研究專案時，我意識到我要拍紀錄片，提供深入了解孩子的經驗，因為這個視角很明顯地缺乏。
錢孝貞說﹐這是王思寧導演的第一個專題紀錄片﹐就取得美國電影學院「最佳紀錄片」﹐這是非常難得的獎項。同時﹐還得到了三藩市亞美國際影展的「最佳紀錄片」﹐以及亞美國際影展的最佳新導演獎。
公共電視台P.O.V.助理導演徐瑞琰表示，在8月31首映「我愛你﹐媽咪﹗」之後的兩個星期﹐即9月7日和14日晚上10時，P.O.V.還將播放另外兩部講述領養兒童的紀錄片﹐請華裔民眾屆時收看。 (http://www.dajiyuan.com)
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World Journal
領養華童紀錄片 公視31日播放
記者徐佳紐約報導
王思寧（左二）講述創作過程。左一為徐瑞琰。左三至左五製片顧問錢孝貞、郭曼麗和富頓集團副總裁劉豫。（記者徐佳/攝影）
一部講述領養華童芳穗永生活的紀錄片「我愛你，媽咪！」將於8月31日晚上10時在公共電視台POV節目首映，導演王思寧27日講述該影片的創作過程，歡迎大家屆時觀賞，思考領養華童的利弊。
王思寧的父母來自台灣，而她則生長在一個白人居多的小鎮，這使得她對自己的族裔非常敏感。1999年，王思寧因為朋友領養了華童，開始對領養華童的生活產生興趣。在採訪了100多個來自中國的兒童之後，她決定拍攝紀錄片，並在2007年認識了「我愛你，媽咪！」中的主角薩都斯基（Donna Sadowsky）一家。當時他們還在中國等待政府批准他們申請領養當時八歲的芳穗永。
王思寧的鏡頭記錄了薩都斯基一家領養芳穗永的情形，以及芳穗永如何在17個月的時間裡，從一個中國女孩轉變成完全不同的美國女孩的過程。其中無論是芳穗永還是薩都斯基一家，都經歷了相當艱難的時候。
「要說拍攝這部紀錄片有什麼感受，我希望美國家庭在決定領養華裔兒童之後，最好都學一些中文。即便只是簡單的睡覺、吃飯、廁所和我愛你幾個單詞，都會讓被領養的孩子更容易適應新生活」，王思寧說。
長島領養兒童家庭中文學校校長郭曼麗鼓勵大家欣賞這部紀錄片。她也希望可以辦一些研討會，讓大家一起討論如何讓領養華童更健康成長。
POV助理導演徐瑞琰表示，在9月7日和14日晚上10時，POV還將播放另外兩部講述領養兒童的紀錄片。
