Mission

Nanchang Project exists to serve the Chinese adoptee community on their personal journeys to search for biological relatives in China.

Goals

Provide Chinese adoptees with a greater sense of identity by helping them access their early life histories and birth culture.

Reconnect all Chinese adoptees with their birth families in any province whenever possible.

Educate the general public on the complex issues that made Chinese children available for adoption.

Provide emotional support to birth families in China and adoptees abroad.

Our Story

Nanchang Project was founded in February 2018 by two adoptive moms with children from Nanchang, Jiangxi, China. After unsuccessful professional searches for their children’s birth families, they took matters into their own hands. They learned Chinese social media through late night chat sessions, and created media content to advertise their searches. Their posts were shared widely, and they asked fellow adoptive families to join with them in a group search video. In the ensuing months, they traveled to China to publicize the project, and the Project quickly grew to represent adoptees from all areas of China.

Today, Nanchang Project’s leadership and volunteer teams have both grown in size with members based all over the world. We are the only organization of its kind that is simultaneously a) focused on reconnecting international adoptees with their roots and birth families in China and b) co-led by adoptees and adoptive parents. Nanchang Project has provided free DNA tests to over 350 biological families who are searching for their children, and, to date, has made over 70 matches between searching Chinese families and children who were adopted abroad. See our Searching Guide to get started!

History of Chinese Adoptions: Why Nanchang Project Exists 

Since China implemented their One-Child Policy in 1980, over 160,000 Chinese individuals have been adopted abroad. The policy was created to control China’s population and reduce poverty. Families with over quota child(ren) were required to pay significant fines if discovered by authorities. This resulted in the Old Child Policy disproportionately affecting families in the lower class. Additionally, some children in welfare homes joined the Special Needs program because they required life-saving surgical procedures or ongoing medical care that first families were unable to afford. The majority of Chinese birth families had no idea that their babies were sent abroad to be raised outside of China. In 2016, China ended their One Child Policy and in 2024, they ended their international adoption program.