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| Mia Lee Sorensen’s Danish parents used to tell her that her birth family in South Korea had put her up for adoption. According to her adoption papers, she was born prematurely in 1987 to a family that could not afford her medical bills and wished for her to have a “good future” abroad. |
| 米娅·李·索伦森的丹麦父母曾跟她说，她是被韩国的亲生父母送养的孩子。送养文件上写道，她于1987年早产出世，家里负担不起医药费，才希望她在国外有一个“美好的未来”。 |
| But when Ms. Sorensen found her birth parents in South Korea last year, they could not believe she was alive. They told her that her mother had passed out during labor and that when she woke up, the clinic told her that the baby had died. |
| 但当索伦森去年在韩国找到亲生父母时，他们都不敢相信她还活着。他们告诉她，她的母亲在分娩时昏迷，醒来后诊所说孩子已经夭折。 |
| South Korea has the world’s largest diaspora of intercountry adoptees, with more foreign adoptions overall than any other nation. About 200,000 children have been sent abroad since the end of the Korean War in 1953, mostly to the United States and Europe. |
| 韩国是世界上跨国收养儿童的最大输出国，被外国收养的儿童人数总体上比其他任何国家都多。自1953年朝鲜战争结束后，大约有20万名儿童被送往国外，其中大部分被送往美国和欧洲。 |
| Those adoptions have continued today, even as the country suffers one of the world’s lowest birthrates. In 2021, the top intercountry adoption hubs were Colombia, India, Ukraine and South Korea. (Before the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020, China had topped the list.) |
| 虽然韩国是世界上出生率最低的国家之一，但这些送养行为持续至今。2021年，全球最大的跨国收养输出地是哥伦比亚、印度、乌克兰和韩国。（在2020年新冠疫情开始前，位居榜首的是中国。） |
| Amid widespread accusations of corruption and malpractice in the past, South Korea opened its first official government investigation into its adoption industry last year. |
| 在过往腐败和渎职行为面临广泛指控之际，韩国政府去年才首次对收养行业展开正式调查。 |
| South Korean families have long been reluctant to adopt children, despite government campaigns to encourage domestic adoptions. And in the decades after the Korean War, when South Korea was an impoverished country with poor medical services and threadbare welfare budgets, there was a pressing need to find adoptive homes abroad for orphaned, abandoned or disabled children, according to adoption experts. |
| 尽管官方一再鼓励国内收养，但韩国家庭长期以来一直不愿收养儿童。收养专家表示，在朝鲜战争后的许多年里，韩国都是个医疗服务落后、福利投入薄弱的贫困国家，迫切需要为孤儿、弃儿或残疾儿童寻找外国收养家庭。 |
| Many children found the help and caring homes they needed abroad. But in its rush to promote overseas adoptions as a solution, South Korea had also spawned profound and widespread problems in the industry that stretched for decades. |
| 许多儿童在国外找到了能满足他们所需的帮助和爱心家庭。但在韩国急于将海外收养当作国内问题解决方案的同时，也引发了深刻而广泛的问题，并且这些问题持续了数十年之久。 |
| Profit motives for adoption firms created an incentive in the past to falsify or obscure documents to make more children available for adoption, sometimes without the birth parents’ knowledge. Many unwed mothers were coerced into signing away their babies even before giving birth. And sometimes there was little or no follow-up from the firms on cases where children struggled with adjustment troubles or abuse in their new homes. |
| 以前的收养机构出于盈利目的会在收养文件中伪造或掩盖事实，以便让更多孩子符合收养标准，有时甚至亲生父母都不知情。许多未婚母亲甚至在分娩前就被迫签字放弃自己的孩子。而当儿童在新家遭遇适应困难或虐待的时候，这些机构也很少或根本没有跟进。 |
| Many of the problems have diminished in recent decades, as South Korea took steps to overhaul its adoption practices, including expanding government support for single mothers who wanted to keep their children and requiring overseas adoptions to be approved by the courts. But numerous accusations of malpractice from earlier decades went without investigation. |
| 随着韩国决意彻底改革收养制度，包括加大政府对想要养育孩子的单身母亲的支持，以及要求海外收养必须得到法院批准，许多问题在近年来已经得到解决。但对于早年间的许多渎职指控依然未展开调查。 |
| The push for accountability has been led by hundreds of adoptees who have returned to South Korea in recent years with the time and resources to seek answers. They have partnered with a new generation of researchers and politicians willing to shed light on a painful legacy that was, for decades, considered too shameful to openly discuss. |
| 近年来，大批被收养者回到韩国追究问责，他们有时间和资源去寻找答案。在新一代研究人员和政客的通力协助下，他们愿意揭开那些几十年来都被视为太可耻而羞于公开讨论的痛苦伤疤。 |
| “It’s like human trafficking,” Ms. Sorensen said of adoption in South Korea. “If this happened to me, how many others did they do this to?” |
| “这就跟人口贩卖一样，”索伦森在谈到韩国的收养制度时表示。“如果这样的事情发生在我身上，那他们还会对多少人做同样的事？” |
| ‘One Ethnic People’ |
| “一个民族” |
| During the pandemic, Peter Moller, a Korean adoptee raised in Denmark, asked fellow Korean adoptees around the world to share their experiences. He expected to learn of isolated cases of document fraud. Instead, hundreds of people came forward with accounts of fabricated data, stolen babies and laundered identities, and of abuse in adoptive families. |
| 疫情期间，在丹麦长大的韩国被收养者彼得·莫勒请世界各地的韩国被收养者分享自己的经历。他本以为会听到一些收养文件作假的孤立案例。但没想到，无数人站出来揭露了伪造数据、偷窃婴儿、洗白身份以及收养家庭虐待的行为。 |
| “We only scratched the surface,” said Mr. Moller, who helped organize the global adoptee campaign that prompted the government investigation. |
| “这只是冰山一角，”莫勒说。他帮助组织的全球被收养者运动推动了韩国政府的调查。 |
| The baby export business in South Korea began with what critics called a deep-seated xenophobia and prejudice against biracial children. In its postwar years, the country’s first president, Syngman Rhee, pursued a policy he called “one state for one ethnic people,” which encouraged sending biracial children born to American soldiers and Korean women to “their fathers’ land.” |
| 韩国的婴儿出口业务始于批评人士所谓的针对混血儿童根深蒂固的仇外心理和偏见。战后韩国首任总统李承晚推行其所谓“一个民族一个国家”政策，鼓励将美国士兵与韩国妇女所生的混血儿送到“他们父辈的土地”上。 |
| Many destitute mothers of biracial children faced a stark choice: place their babies up for overseas adoption or raise them alone in poverty and disgrace. |
| 许多混血儿的贫困母亲面临艰难抉择：要么送养海外，要么在贫困和耻辱中独自抚养孩子。 |
| When Boo Chung-ha, a retired adoption agent, joined Holt Children’s Services, the country’s largest adoption agency, in 1967, his first job was to persuade women working in the sex trade around American military bases to place their biracial children up for overseas adoption. “Our society didn’t care for them and their mothers,” he said. “Their mothers lived and worked in rooms barely large enough to squeeze in a bed.” |
| 夫正河（音）是一名退休的收养代理人，当他在1967年加入韩国最大的收养机构霍尔特儿童服务公司时，他的第一项工作是说服在美军基地周边从事性交易的妇女将她们的混血儿送养海外。“我们的社会不会管他们和他们母亲的死活，”他说。“这些母亲生活和劳作的房间小到几乎连床都放不下。” |
| In South Korea, it was long left to parents to report the birth of a new child, a practice that adoptees say made it easier to leave newborn babies unregistered with the government and to pass them off as orphans who were then preyed upon by adoption agencies. Only this June, South Korea’s National Assembly passed a law requiring birth clinics and the authorities to register a child’s birth. |
| 在韩国，长期以来都是由父母报告新生儿的出生，被收养者表示，这种做法更容易导致新生儿不向政府登记，然后把他们当作孤儿，变成收养机构掠夺的对象。直到今年6月，韩国国会才通过一项法律，要求生育诊所和当局对新生儿进行登记。 |
| ‘Mail-Order Babies’ |
| “邮购婴儿” |
| By the end of the 1960s, most children sent abroad were not biracial but born to unwed mothers, another target of prejudice in South Korea. Around that time, as many as 20 babies would arrive at Holt from across the country every Friday, said Mr. Boo, who headed Holt’s Korea operation until 1978. |
| 到20世纪60年代末，大多数被送到国外的孩子并非混血儿，而是由未婚母亲所生，这是另一个在韩国遭受偏见的群体。夫正河说，当时每周五都会有多达20个婴儿从全国各地来到霍尔特，他在1978年之前一直负责霍尔特的韩国业务。 |
| “Some had no information on them, and doctors had to guess their age from their teeth,” he said. Others had been abandoned and starved for days and died soon after arrival. They were buried in a plot owned by Holt, with neither their birth nor death registered with the government, he said. He said that during his time at Holt, the agency did nothing illegal. |
| “有些婴儿身上没有任何信息，医生只能根据牙齿猜测他们的年龄，”他说。还有一些婴儿是被遗弃的，饿了好几天，到达后不久就去世了。他说，他们就埋在霍尔特拥有的一块土地上，出生和死亡都没未做政府登记。他表示，他在霍尔特工作期间，该机构没有任何违法行为。 |
| “We sent children overseas so they could have better medical care and homes,” Mr. Boo said. |
| “我们把孩子送到海外，这样他们就能得到更好的医疗和家庭，”夫正河说。 |
| Another aim, at least for the government, was to alleviate the country’s bloated, postwar welfare rolls. |
| 至少对政府来说，另一个目标是减轻国家战后庞大的福利名单。 |
| To streamline the adoption process, South Korea allowed four private agencies, including Holt, to earn fees by sending adopted children abroad. Rather than requiring adoptive parents to travel to South Korea, the agencies delivered the infants directly. |
| 为了简化领养程序，韩国允许霍尔特等四家民间机构通过将被收养儿童送到国外来赚取费用。这些机构不要求养父母前来韩国，而是直接将婴儿送到海外。 |
| Overseas travelers were often hired by the agencies to escort the babies to their new families at a low cost. In 1970, a daily newspaper in South Korea reported that 10 children bound for France through Holt were tied together in pairs with clotheslines as they made their way to an airplane. The American who was escorting the children with his wife was quoted as saying that he did so to prevent them from scattering. |
| 这些机构经常以低廉的价格雇用海外游客，将婴儿护送到新家庭。1970年，韩国一家日报报道说，通过霍尔特前往法国的10名儿童在走向飞机时，被晾衣绳成对地绑在一起。报道引用了与妻子一起护送这些儿童的美国人的话说，他们这么做是为了防止孩子们走散。 |
| Even as South Korea’s war-torn economy began to improve, the country continued to promote adoption. In the 1970s, the country briefly considered phasing out overseas adoptions after North Korea accused it of selling babies to foreigners. But in the 1980s, it further liberalized intercountry adoptions, this time in the name of promoting “emigration and private diplomacy.” |
| 尽管饱受战争摧残的韩国经济开始好转，但该国仍在继续推动领养。上世纪70年代，在朝鲜指责韩国向外国人出售婴儿后，韩国曾短暂考虑过逐步取消海外领养。但在20世纪80年代，韩国进一步放开了跨国领养，这一次是以促进“移民和民间外交”的名义。 |
| References to South Korea as a “baby exporter” and to “mail-order babies” became popularized in international media, and have since stuck. |
| 韩国是“婴儿出口国”，从韩国可以“邮购婴儿”的说法在国际媒体上广为流传，并且延续至今。 |
| A Booming Business |
| 业务兴隆 |
| In 1985, 8,837 South Korean children were sent abroad for adoption, 6,021 of them to the United States. |
| 1985年，8837名韩国儿童被送往国外领养，其中6021名被送往美国。 |
| For each baby, adoption agencies collected a $3,000 to $4,000 “facilitating fee” from the adoptive family, as well as airfare and a separate $1,450 adoption fee, according to internal government documents from the national archives, which were reviewed by The New York Times. (South Korea’s per-capita national income in 1988 was $4,571.) |
| 《纽约时报》查阅了国家档案馆的政府内部文件，文件显示，对于每个婴儿，收养机构向收养家庭收取3000至4000美元的“中介费”，以及机票和1450美元的单独收养费。（1988年，韩国的人均国民收入为4571美元。） |
| To help keep business humming, the agencies ran or subsidized shelters for unwed pregnant women, where the women were asked to sign agreements to relinquish their babies, according to a report published in January by the National Human Rights Commission. |
| 国家人权委员会今年1月发布的一份报告显示，为了维持业务运转，这些机构为未婚孕妇开设收容所，或向收容所提供补贴，同时要求这些女性签署协议，放弃自己的孩子。 |
| Lawmakers at the time began to worry that adoption agencies had become “human trafficking” centers, according to one of the government documents that described a meeting between welfare ministry officials and the agencies. Another document quoted the presidential office as warning that the agencies “focused on making profit” and handed out “cash and gifts” to clinics and orphanages that served as adoption brokers. |
| 一份政府文件描述了福利部官员与收养机构的一次会面，当时的议员们开始担心收养机构变成了“人口贩卖”中心。另一份文件援引总统办公室的警告称，这些机构“专注于盈利”，向充当收养中介的诊所和孤儿院发送“现金和礼物”。 |
| Holt said its adoption fees were approved by the government. It also said that it processed adoptions based on information provided by orphanages and other institutions. When it received babies directly from parents who had not registered their children’s births, the agency said it was allowed by law to treat the children as orphans. |
| 霍尔特表示该公司收取的领养费用经过了政府批准，并表示该公司是根据孤儿院和其他机构提供的信息处理收养事宜的。当该机构直接从没有办理出生登记的父母那里接收婴儿时，它表示，法律允许将这些孩子视为孤儿。 |
| Searching for Answers |
| 寻找答案 |
| The news media in South Korea often highlights the successes of Korean adoptees abroad, but those who have returned in recent years describe being haunted by questions of identity and belonging. |
| 韩国的新闻媒体经常强调在海外被收养的韩国人取得的成功，但近年来回国的韩国人说，他们被身份和归属问题困扰着。 |
| William Alan Vorhees said when he was adopted by an unmarried American businessman, his papers listed him as an orphan. But he says he now struggles with lingering childhood memories of visiting a rural market in South Korea with his mother and being dragged away suddenly by a stranger. |
| 威廉·艾伦·沃希斯说，当他被一位未婚的美国商人收养时，他的文件将他列为孤儿。但他说，一段童年记忆始终挥之不去——他和母亲一起前往韩国的一个农村市场，然后他突然被一个陌生人拖走。 |
| Investigators plan to release their findings by the spring. They do not have the power to prosecute any of the agencies, but the government is required by law to follow their recommendations. |
| 调查人员计划在春季公布调查结果。他们没有权力起诉任何机构，但法律要求政府遵循他们的建议。 |
| Jin Meyerson, a Korean adoptee who became an artist, pointed out that South Korea is usually obsessed with addressing historical wrongs, like seeking apologies from Japan for its sexual enslavement of Korean women during colonial rule. |
| 被收养后成为艺术家的辰·迈耶森指出，韩国通常沉迷于解决历史错误，比如要求日本就殖民统治期间对韩国女性的性奴役而道歉。 |
| But when it comes to owning up to its painful adoption history, the country has failed, he said. |
| 但他说，在承认其痛苦的儿童收养历史方面，韩国失败了。 |
| “As a country, as a culture, as a community, what right do we have to demand an apology from Japan when we can’t even take care of this situation in our own home, with our own children?” Mr. Meyerson said. |
| “作为一个国家，作为一种文化，作为一个人群，我们甚至不能在自己的家里与自己的孩子一起处理这种事，我们又有什么权利要求日本道歉呢？”迈耶森说。 |
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