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前一阵子,我在网上读到了下面这篇长长的英文文章,第一次了解到"国际儿童收养"这个话题",就深地被美国人民的博爱精神感动了, 爱好翻译的我就满怀感激之情地译完了全文-感谢这些外国朋友的仁爱之心!
译者:晔晔晔,QQ:916180395(上外学生)
A Whole New World
－－－By Jocelyn Dong
一个新世界(或新现象)
－－－乔斯林·冬 著（内容涉及“跨文化的国际儿童收养”）
Growing number of parents who''ve adopted children from China seek to give not just family, home and love -- but culture and language too.
现在，越来越多的外国夫妇从中国收养了孩子。他们不仅希望给予这些孩子家的感觉和来自家的关爱，而且想方设法让孩子了解他们国家的文化和语言。
Alexis Hamilton and her then 18-month-old daughter Lia were playing in the Junior Museum and Zoo some years ago when a little girl walked up.
The girl looked quizzically at mother and daughter. Your baby has Chinese eyes, the 4-year-old said to Hamilton. She peered some more and added, You don''t have Chinese eyes. Hamilton, who was taken aback for a minute, responded by explaining that Lia had been adopted from China.
几年前，艾历克西斯·汉密尔顿和她当时十八个月大的女儿莉尔正在少年美术馆、动物园玩。这时一个女孩走上前来。女孩用古怪的眼光望着这对母女。“你的孩子长着中国人的眼睛”，小姑娘对汉密尔顿说。朝汉密尔顿瞥了几眼后，女孩继续说，“你的眼睛不像是中国人的”。汉密尔顿吃惊地愣了一会儿，解释到：莉尔是从中国收养的。
That scene, or one similar, no doubt rings a bell with hundreds of families in the Bay Area. That''s because more and more singles and couples -- like Hamilton and her husband, Donald Green -- have adopted children from China in the past decade.
这种事情，或者说同样的事情已经发生在硅谷地区成百上千个家庭里。人们对收养行动表示支持。那是因为越来越多的单身人士或夫妇已经在过去的几十年中从中国收养了不少孩子。汉密尔顿和唐纳德·格林夫妇就是个例子。
They are riding a wave that began in the early 1990s and has yet to crest. Last year, nearly 6,900 Chinese children were adopted into American families -- more than any previous year.
The phenomenon stems in part from policy changes in China that suddenly opened up new opportunities for adoptive families, as well as a growing acceptance of diversity and interracial families in some parts of the United States.
收养浪潮开始于90年代初期，至今还在继续。去年,大约有6900个中国孩子被美国家庭收养，这个数字已大大超过了前几年。
现象的产生部分是由于中国的政策有了改变。新政策的出台让收养家庭看到了机会。在美国，越来越多的人接受了存在于家庭中的差异和不同种族的家庭成员。
International adoption in the Bay Area, said one local adoption professional, has become almost mainstream.
It''s changed dramatically. More and more people are doing it. It''s become an accepted part of the culture, said Andrea Stawicke, executive director of Bay Area Adoption Services in Mountain View.
“在硅谷，国际间的收养行动很受人们的支持,几乎成了社会主流趋势”，一位当地的收养问题专家这样告诉我们。硅谷管理收养服务的总裁安德烈·Stawicke说，“这是个令人咋舌的巨大改变。越来越多的人参与了收养中国儿童，人们本着接受的心态将该现象视作当地文化的一部分”。显然，这位先生看待问题的眼光是很透彻的。
But for all the joys adoptive parenting can bring, the trend has also produced its own set of challenges, chief among them the question of how parents of one culture go about raising children born of another culture. And when that country is China, and the children are of a different race, whatresponsibilities do parents have for maintaining their children''s connections to the birth country?
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