“The Land of Promises” by Photographer Youqine Lefèvre

Photographer Youqine Lefèvre was one of 6 Chinese ladies adopted to Belgian families in 1994. Born in Hunan Province and adopted at the age of 8 months, Lefèvre’s connection to China’s delivery handle and 1-baby insurance policies is individual. In her modern photobook, “The Land of Guarantees,” revealed by The Eriskay Link, she explores the repercussions of these programs by means of the lens of her have working experience and the tales of the 5 other adopted ladies and their dad and mom. 

“I have no recollection of what preceded my adoption or of the assembly concerning the dad and mom and little ones at the orphanage,” she describes. “My memory of this occasion has been mediated via the stories my father and the other mothers and fathers have told me, the photographs and films they made, and the official paperwork I have.” Drawing on these archives, which day back to 1994, shots she took in the course of journeys to China in 2017 and 2019, study centered on writings of demographers and professionals on China’s beginning handle plan, and testimonies of people today she achieved in China, “The Land of Promises” is about Lefèvre’s discovery of her state of origin, and her try to fully grasp what led to the separation and worldwide and transracial adoption of hundreds of countless numbers of Chinese ladies.

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