A souvenir slammed as 'white savior Barbie' has some Chinese adoptees reconnecting

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Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster “Barbie” has many buzzing about untraditional, off-beat versions of the dolls, from Video Girl Barbie to Growing Up Skipper, Barbie’s little sister whose chest inflates when you lift her arm. Enter the scene “Going Home Barbie,” a white doll holding a small Asian baby made to help Chinese adoptees transition to their new, presumably Western, families. It’s real and it has some adoptees digging through their attics and connecting with others with similar stories. In a viral TikTok posted this week, Kaitlyn Fung, a college student from central New Jersey and a Chinese adoptee, showcased her “Going Home Barbie,” which she said she received at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, China, where she stayed as a baby with her adoptive parents during the adoption process in November 2003. “I was scrolling through my For You page, and I saw all the people using Billie Eilish’s song, ‘What Was I Made For?’ I felt like that song really resonated with me both within the movie and outside of it,” she said in the video, which has garnered 5 million views. “And then, when my mom initially showed me the doll, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I need to share it with somebody.’” The doll’s box reads, “This souvenir is presented by Mattel (HK) Ltd. to adopting parents of Chinese orphan children staying at the White Swan Hotel, Guangzhou, China.” The doll was discontinued in 2015 during the hotel’s renovations and was never reintroduced, a manager from the White Swan Hotel confirmed to NBC News. The doll, which has at least nine editions, each sporting different outfits, was given exclusively to adopting families that stayed at the White Swan. Its limited supply has sown demand for the vintage collectible, and copies of the doll are being auctioned for as much as $658.18 on eBay. Fung, 20, said that her experience was slightly different from other adoptees because her parents aren’t white — her father is Chinese, and her mother is Puerto Rican. “Adoption is a very nuanced experience, and everybody has their own experience with it. That’s reflected in the comments of the video,” Fung said. “But, it’s a white Barbie, simulating the transracial adoption. For me, my adoption wasn’t transracial, which is something that, I think, makes it different.” The hotel, which was just a block away from the U.S. Consulate General at the time, was nicknamed “The White Stork Inn” and “The Baby Hotel,” according to a 2003 New York Times article. Adoption agencies often booked large blocks of rooms for American families who were traveling together, and Mattel partnered with the White Swan to welcome families with limited-edition dolls waiting for them in their rooms, along with a sponsored playroom, according to the Times. Reactions to the doll were mixed, with many users on TikTok seeing it as a meaningful keepsake while some on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, nicknamed it “white savior Barbie.” “White savior barbie is crazy what,” one X user wrote. “If you want to highlight #adoption as the capitalist and colonialist consumerism that it is, you cannot do much better than this,” another user tweeted. “This is extremely real and they gave out a bajillion of them. Just exceptionally disturbing,” another tweeted. Mattel did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment. Annie Wu Henry, a Chinese adoptee and progressive activist, said that while her family didn’t receive a Barbie when they adopted her in 1997, the issue is complicated. Henry, who was adopted by white parents, said she was fortunate that her adoption experience was positive, but some Chinese adoptees may feel otherwise. “There is sometimes the potential … of white saviorism of the adopted parents that have kind of prided themselves on doing this good deed,” Henry said. “The good deed is adopting the child and being a parent to them, and that is not the reason you become a parent.” Henry added that the doll may not accurately represent the experiences of the families that received it, as not all Chinese adoptees were adopted by white parents, as in Fung’s case. Fung’s video, which was posted Wednesday, also inspired commenters to connect with others who said they, too, have the Barbie. “wait oh my god i think i have the same thing i was adopted in 2005 and my parents stayed in the white swan hotel, how about you?” the commenter wrote. Replies included others sharing the month and year they were adopted and what province in China they were originally from. “I’ve definitely seen this community build-up of people being like, ‘Oh, my gosh, you just unlocked a memory,’” Fung said. The comments are overwhelmingly positive, with many writing how emotional they are upon seeing the doll. “There’s a lot of people trying to find their group. I think a lot of people — when a lot of people lose touch, they want to try and get that back. And I think that’s really sweet and kind of heartwarming,” she said. Another Chinese adoptee with the souvenir, Evangeline Kaley, a college student from the suburbs of Chicago, said her mother has the doll in a keepsake box. Kaley, 19, was adopted in May 2005 by her parents, who are white. She said the viral video pushed her to finally connect with other adoptees — which she had previously wanted to do but wasn’t ready to do so emotionally. “If it didn’t go viral, I wouldn’t have done it yesterday,” she said. “I was going to do it earlier in my life, but I didn’t think I was ready. Now, I’m almost 20, so I think it’s good to go back and try.” She said one of the girls who reached out after commenting on the video was the baby she had shared a crib with at the orphanage in China, according to her mother.