Lost in the Stacks: Daughters of the Bamboo Grove
Zanhua's twins were loved, wanted and illegal. Could she save them from Chinese authorities?
Zanhua’s infant twin girls, born secretly in a shed in a bamboo grove, were loved, wanted and illegal. If Chinese Family Planning officials discovered her daughters, they would show no mercy at this flouting of China’s draconian one-child policy. There might be large fines, destruction of property or jail time. Worst of all, the girls could even be taken.
Despite the family’s best efforts at concealing the girls, authorities eventually seized one of the twins. Bereft, Zanhua and her family had no way of knowing what became of their beloved girl. They didn’t know that a Chinese orphanage listed the bright and lively toddler as “abandoned.” They didn’t know a Texas family with the best of intentions to save a Chinese orphan adopted her. Or that the young woman, now named Esther, grew up believing her biological family abandoned her.
In Daughters of the Bamboo Grove Barbara Demick traces the twins’ story of separation and eventual reunification. As Demick travels from a rural village in China to Esther’s modest house in Texas, she explores not only China’s evolving population policies, but also controversies with international adoptions. Just as she did with Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, Demick excels at intertwining compelling personal stories with larger cultural and political topics.
