The “Coming Home Barbie”

During the peak of international Chinese adoptions, The White Swan Hotel was the main hotel where families stayed while waiting for their childs’ Visas to come home. When my family stayed there in 2005, after adopting me, the hotel gave us a Barbie holding a Chinese baby. This Barbie is known as the Coming Home Barbie and was only given to adoptees at this hotel.

To this day, I still have that Barbie — never opened — as a keepsake from my journey coming home.

This Barbie was the product of a partnership between the hotel and Mattel (the company that owns Barbie) and was intended to be a souvenir for the adoptee. However, to some, this Coming Home Barbie is now seen as a symbol of white saviorism in adoption. It’s crucial to acknowledge Chinese, transracial adoptees’ might see this Barbie as a representation of their adoption experiences (either positive, negative or neutral). Now that we’re older, we have the power and right to praise, critique or show this Barbie to help tell our own stories.