Adopting Revolution: The Chinese Communist Revolution and the Politics of Global Humanitarianism

Abstract

During the tumultuous period surrounding the Chinese Communist revolution of 1949, Chinese children wrote thousands of letters to foreign “foster parents” as part of a humanitarian fundraising program called the “adoption plan” for international child sponsorship. Under the adoption plan, private citizens around the world “adopted” Chinese children by funding their lives at orphanages in China while building personal relationships through the exchange of photographs, gifts, and translated letters. This article uses the case study of the Foster Parents Plan for War Children China Branch to examine how Chinese child welfare workers mobilized the sentimental ties between children and foster parents to secure international support for the revolution. Based on 490 extant letters sent by Chinese children to their foreign foster parents, it analyzes how the adoption plan became a centerpiece of efforts to transform inherited humanitarian practices to meet the new ideological and material needs of the Chinese Communist revolution.