Claire
BORn
Hong Kong
year of birth
1960
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I was found on a doorstep and taken into an orphanage in Hong Kong. In 1962, I arrived at Heathrow airport and I was one of nine Chinese babies to be adopted by British parents. My dad was British born Chinese and my mum was British. British Airways did a feature of us as we arrived on their plane. We came in December dressed in these Chinese red brocade jackets, we look like mini Father Christmases, don’t we?
The Hong Kong orphanage dressed us in the same Chinese jackets and we each had a bracelet. You can see why this jacket is dear to me. For all of us adoptees, these jackets are really, really precious.
Some of my fellow adoptees have lost their jackets, they’re very upset with it or maybe their parents didn’t keep it for them. I would be heartbroken if I lost the jacket or bracelet. Even though I have pictures of these objects, it’s my connection to Hong Kong and it’s not even my birth parents or my first family, it’s quite hard to articulate how to call those people who gave birth to you, these things are definitely tied to Hong Kong as a place.
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我是在門口台階上被發現，然後帶到香港的一家孤兒院養大的。1962年，我和其他8個被英國父母收養的華人寶寶一起來到了希思羅機場。我爸爸是英國出生的華人，我媽媽是英國人。我們到的時候，英國航空給我們拍了一張照。我們是12月份到的，都穿著中式的紅色綢緞棉襖。我們看起來像不像迷你聖誕老人？
那家香港的孤兒院給我們穿上一模一樣的棉襖，一人戴了一個手鐲。可想而知為什麼這件棉襖對我很重要。對於我們這些被收養的孩子來說，這件棉襖很重要。
有些領養的孩子的棉襖已經丟了，他們看到它很傷心，或者他們的父母沒有替他們保存下來。雖然我有它們的照片，但要是我弄丟了棉襖或者手鐲的話，我會很難過。它們把我和香港這個地方聯繫起來，而不是把我和我的親生父母或者我的第一個家聯繫起來。我很難用言語表達該如何稱呼給你生命的人。所以，它們是把我和香港這個地方聯繫起來。