I began to travel extensively to China in the 90s, I remember vividly seeing a big group of mature Caucasian couples in a 5-star hotel where every couple was carrying a Chinese girl. The toddlers, apparently from the orphanages in the countryside, looked bewildered. Today, such adoption tours are still being organized and I wonder how these girls have grown to be.
I always feel for the orphans and their struggles. Their past is missing and they live with a hole in their hearts that haunts mysteriously. Metaphorically, the state of the modern man resembles that of an adoptee. We are either adopting multiple identities, or coming to terms with our loss of identity.
My grandparents were migrant farmers from Southern China. I am the new generation overseas Chinese with a Westernized education who deals with the gap rather than the bond. Growing up in an environment that turns to materialism for an answer of a better life, I grew up with more questions than answers. Facing such rapid transformations, one can experience tangibly the ongoing exodus from China in a larger scale. Lost in a shifting and rootless world, the hybrid man is confronting his identity crisis at its core.