Resources

Explore informational guides on DNA testing and beginning your birth family search. Discover documentaries on the adoptee experience. Get connected to online adoptee communities who are searching for their birth families and general adoptee discussions.

Guides

GEDmatch Mini Guide

The basics for now: how to interpret GEDmatch results and use DNA Painter’s Shared cM tool. A more comprehensive guide is in the works and will come soon!

How to Download Raw Data from:

• 23andMe

• AncestryDNA

• MyHeritage

• FamilyTreeDNA

Create a Weibo Account

This guide was produced by ICSA. Weibo is the second most popular social media platform in China, after WeChat. It’s like Twitter or Instagram and is a good place to share search posters.

Documentaries

Ricki’s Promise - streaming free on YouTube

Directed by Dr. Changfu Chang, this film follows a Chinese adoptee (Ricki Mudd) who has found her birth parents and returns to China to live with her birth family for a summer to see what her life would have been like if she hadn’t been adopted. While this is a unique and personal story, Ricki’s Promise encompasses the universal themes of love and loss, blame and forgiveness, and the search for identity and belonging, as Ricki struggles to find her place between two worlds.

Meet Me on the Bridge - streaming free on YouTube and the BBC

Also directed by Dr. Changfu Chang, this powerful film went viral both in China and abroad in the Western world. It follows the story of Chinese adoptee Kati Pohler as she learns about her past and reunites with her birth family. When Kati Pohler was three days old, she was left at a market in China. She was later adopted by an American family. When she was 20, Kati discovered her birth parents had left her a note, and that every year on the same day, they waited for her on a famous bridge in Hangzhou.

Found - streaming on Netflix

Three American teenage girls adopted from China discover that they are blood-related cousins. Their online meeting inspires the young women to embark on a once-in-a-lifetime journey to China together in search of answers, connections, and their lost history. Multiple birth families and their stories are featured in this film.

All About My Sisters - streaming on Vimeo

In her debut film, director Qiong Wang builds a riveting portrait of her family reckoning with the lasting impact of China's one-child policy. After giving birth to two daughters, Qiong's parents were desperate for a boy. When they learned that they were pregnant with a third daughter, the couple embarked on a path that would affect their family for generations to come. Filming for more than seven years, Ms. Wang courageously investigates her family's shocking history. Intimate, powerful interviews with her parents and siblings and a keen eye for detail create a never-before-seen view of the one-child policy at its peak and the echoes that still haunt a family and their community today. Due to the mature and sensitive nature of this film, we do not recommend it for young viewers. Content warnings: child abandonment, forced abortion, infanticide, and verbal abuse.

Found in Korea - streaming on Vimeo

A Korean adoptee, Nam Holtz, returns to her country of origin for the first time to rediscover her roots. In this youth-friendly documentary, Nam explores birth family searching, identity, and the social stigmas surrounding adoption in Korea's present day society. Although this film follows a Korean adoptee, the issues and themes are relatable for Chinese and other transracial adoptees.

Online Communities

We invite Chinese adoptees and adoptive families of all searching backgrounds to connect with Nanchang Project’s accounts and other community groups. There you will keep up-to-date with our current and future activities (like trips TO China and newly added birth families), as well as find others who can assist in your individual journey. There are plenty of free resources available to guide you, so take advantage of them. Ask questions! Our online community loves to share useful knowledge.

Our public social media handles:

• Facebook - The Nanchang Project

• Instagram - @nanchangproject

• TikTok - @nanchangproject

Remember to answer any screening questions at the time you request membership into these private search-relevant Facebook groups:

• Nanchang Project Goes to China - group for supporters of our work to see updates during our trips to China

• Origins Searches by Nanchang Project - Chinese Birth Family Search Group - You can use this resource to connect with other adoptees and adoptive parents to discuss all things related to an origins search (birth family search)

• Family Ties: Chinese Adoptee Birth Family Search - only search group moderated by both adoptees and adoptive parents, also the original group for general searching, discussions, and advice

• CCI Birth Parent Searching and Reunion Group - open to adoptees only and moderated by China’s Children International

• Various region-specific groups for searching and non-searching general discussions exist on Facebook. You can see if your orphanage or Chinese province/city/county has its own group by searching keywords and seeing what pops up. For example, to find the Nanchang Project administered private group Jiangxi Province Birth Parent Searching, type “Jiangxi birth parent search” into the search bar and it will appear as the top result. These area-focused groups are helpful to connect with others from your area and can help you learn more about searching there.

General resources for the Chinese adoption community:

• China’s Children International - original Facebook group for Chinese adoptees and adoptive parents for general China and adoption-related discussions; because only adoptees may post and parents can comment with permission, many parents have found this group useful to better understand the adoptee experience. CCI’s website can be found here

• Chinese Adoptee Alliance - formerly known as Families with Children from China (FCCNY), Chinese Adoptee Alliance is now renamed and fully led by Chinese adoptees, supporting Chinese adoptees and allies through various events and programs

• Chinese Language Exchange Circle - a private Facebook group and supportive space for Chinese adoptees only (aged 18 and older) who want to connect, practice Chinese, and share experiences related to adoption and heritage. No minimum fluency; beginner or fluent in Chinese welcome

General resource for international adoptees:

• Intercountry Adoptee Voices (ICAV) - organization led by and for international adoptees of all countries that provides various support resources, including general searching, list of adoptee-led groups, adoptee voices, and more

  • ICAV also has a private Facebook group for adoptees to join and connect with one another

Have a resource you want to recommend?