The Fortunes

John and his wife Nola are in Guangzhou to adopt a baby. John is biracial, with a Chinese Singaporean mother and a white American father, and he works as a professor. He was working on a historical novel about Chinese workers and the construction of the transcontinental railroad, but the project has stalled and he has been writing faux dime-store novelizations of an old television show called Kung Fu. The current book in this series is going to be set during the building of the railroad and feature rebellious workers. His colleagues think that he is working on a book about the murder of Vincent Chin. He and Nola tried to have a baby, but were unable to do so because of a chromosomal disorder that caused miscarriages, so they decided to adopt a Chinese child. John did not sleep on the flight over and is jetlagged. Nola is able to sleep and while John lies awake, he thinks about how difficult their marriage has become since they began trying to conceive. They are traveling with an entire group of adoptive parents-to-be, and their tour guide is a Chinese woman who, because of how difficult her name is to pronounce for westerners, has told everyone to call her Napoleon.

John and Nola stopped in San Francisco on the way to China. There, John felt especially out-of-place in Chinatown amongst people who tried to speak to him in Chinese and then were disappointed when he responded in English. Nola enjoyed the visit more than John did.

In China, part of their experience is a kind of cultural tour meant to familiarize parents with the country and culture from which their children come. All of the other members of their party find this portion of the trip fascinating and seem to fully embrace Chinese culture. John grew up during an era of racism and stigmatization (even his white father was casually racist) and although he knows that he should see white people’s interest in China as social progress, something about it makes him uneasy. He is also uneasy in China and feels less of a connection to the country than the other parents seem to think he should. They even correct his terminology, puzzled that he has so little cultural knowledge.

John also realizes that the other adopters resent him because he is half-Chinese. They envy him the facial features that will match those of his daughter. (Even John’s mother pointed out that no one will realize that their daughter is adopted.) The entire group realizes that it is in China almost entirely because of China’s one-child policy. Chinese families prefer male offspring, and so it is common for them to place their female children up for adoption, hoping their next child will be a boy. There is tension in the group because of this knowledge. All the parents-to-be are invested in helping their children maintain a connection to the culture of their birth and do not want to seem racist, so they are not sure how they will explain the one-child policy to their kids as they age. While Nola sleeps, John slips out of their hotel room and heads down to the bar. He is afraid that his tossing and turning will wake her up, and because their relationship has been so strained he does not want to risk an argument. At the bar, he meets a sex worker named Pearl and pays her just to sit at the bar to talk. He learns that Pearl was abandoned by her parents and grew up in an orphanage. The two trade stories and offensive jokes about Chinese people (Pearl has a dark sense of humor) and then she tells him that his time is up.

John, still jetlagged and having left the hotel bar, walks alone through the city at night, contemplating China’s one-child policy. He has heard that rural women often sneak into cities to leave their babies in public places where they know that the children will be found. He returns to the hotel as the sun rises. It is “Gotcha Day,” the morning on which the group will be united with their adopted babies. Nola spends more time than usual figuring out what to wear, and then the two join the rest of their party. The facility where they are to meet their children is chaotic. The room is full and babies are handed to couples one-by-one. At the end of the process John and Nola are without a baby, and Napoleon finds out that their daughter has a fever and has been left behind at the orphanage. They return to the hotel and worry. John goes out to find some medicine for Nola’s headache and gets lost, making it back to the hotel with difficulty.

John and Nola travel alone to the orphanage. They meet with the director, ready to give her the customary donation and take home their child. She brings out a baby, but John can immediately tell it is not the girl whom they’ve been given photographs of. They learn that their baby has died and they ask to see her. After some discussion, they are shown the body. John and Nola agree to take the baby that the director selected for them after being shown an entire room full of crying infants. They find the situation uncomfortable and are anxious to leave. On the way back into the hotel they run into Pearl, the sex worker whom John had talked to. She wishes them well and Nola asks who she is. John just shrugs in response. Later that night, the two are searching for a name for this little girl, and John suggests Pearl. He wonders what their daughter’s life will be like and what the future holds for all of them.