Daughters of the Bamboo Grove (2025) by American journalist Barbara Demick tells the story of Zanhua who gave birth to twin girls in a Chinese province in September 2000.

Because of China’s notorious one-child policy, Zanhua and her husband left 1 of the girls in the care of relatives. But, in 2002, the child was snatched away. Govt officials told the family they couldn’t keep the child because they were in breach of the 1 child rule.

Barbara Demick tells this story in the context of international adoptions, as Chinese babies were in high demand: by the time Barbara Demick was writing in 2009 for the LA Times, something like 100,000 Chinese babies had been adopted internationally, with around half of those going to the USA.

Zanhua’s daughter was one of those who ended up in the USA.