Article about Tian Duoduo

At first, Tian DuoDuo seemed a little skeptical of the interns coming over to play with him and his preschool friends. He would raise an eyebrow at me and frown, but would watch with curiosity as I interacted with his friends. Now- after a few weeks, I have proven to be a worthy playmate, and Duoduo’s eyes light up with excitement when he sees me and the other China Care interns. We are daily greeted by his wide smiles and calls of “ni hao” or “hi”. I suspect, however, that at least in small part, his change of heart is most likely because we always come bearing gifts of playdough, legos, bubbles, and sometimes ice cream.

Tian Duoduo was born March 10, 2005 near the city of Houma in Shanxi Province of China. The circumstances of his abandonment are unknown, but he lived at a Catholic-run orphanage until July 15, 2005 when he was brought to China Care at the age of four months. Duoduo was most likely abandoned because of his various physical disabilities – he was born with a hernia in his stomach, a deformed left leg and too many toes on his right foot. Duoduo also suffers from an S-shaped spine which together with his prosthetic leg makes his gate very unbalanced. Duoduo has had two surgeries thus far – one for his hernia and another on his left, deformed leg. It is unknown at this time if he will need any further surgeries to correct his left leg, or his spine. China Care is planning to provide Duoduo with a brace to correct his spine as soon as he reaches one meter in height, or 3.4 feet.

However, Duoduo, now three and a half years old is undeterred by his disablities and understands how to walk well with his prosthetic leg. He loves to play games such as “Red Light, Green Light” where the purpose is to run as far and as fast as one can while someone flashes the green light – and halt immediately as soon as the red light is flashed. Duoduo smiles broadly and laughs up a storm as he runs across his foster parents living room in an attempt to win the game. Duoduo also loves to play hide and seek games – usually around his parent’s car. He loves to run around the back side of the car while I run up to the corner and surprise him. He squeals with delight and runs around the car in the opposite direction, only for me to surprise him again.

Duoduo loves playdough. During preschool, he rolls the dough into many balls before determinedly smashing them all back into flat pancakes. He’s also created a game of getting up from the table and giving some of his playdough balls to one or more interns before sitting back down again to make some more playdough balls. During playdough time, Duoduo always shares well with his siblings and his other friends. Though he gets upset if someone takes his stash of playdough balls.

One morning after preschool had finished, Duoduo's foster father invited me to eat some watermelon with the family. Duoduo's eyes lit up at the sight of the xigua (watermelon) and he patiently waited as his dad cut up the pieces. He eagerly bit into his first piece and announced "hao chi!" or "delicious!" After eating at least three pieces of watermelon and regularly exclaiming, "hao chi!" Duoduo had had his fill, and he laughed happliy when his dad began to clean up all of the black seeds he had spit out onto the table.

Duoduo, while loving to play, is also a very helpful worker. After we are done playing with playdough or legos during preschool, Duoduo cheerfully helps to clean up the mess that has been made. He loves to pack up the playdough accessories into their little bag and leads the way from his apartment to the China Care office where the preschool toys are stored. When he enters the office it is obvious that he is a favorite of many of the office staff who smile and say "ni hao, Duoduo!" or "hello Duoduo!" He always shyly smiles back and rushes to put away the playdough.

Duoduo is a very inquisitve little boy and enjoys understanding what is going on around him. One day after preschool, he followed me to the classroom for the older China Care children. Duoduo eagerly looked through all of the toys and continually looked up at me and asked, "shenme le?" or "what is it?" at each toy until he had found a satisfactory one to play with. We sat down to play with an old etch-a-sketch which he immediately loved - and he especially loved erasing my etches! After awhile he found some toy airplanes and happily played. We played for a bit longer with the airplanes until his older sister came in to ask him to come home and eat lunch. He refused at first- happily ensconced in his zooming airplanes game. Finally though, his mom was able to convince him to come home for some “hao chi” lunch.

Tian Duoduo is a very sweet little boy whose circumstances have been unfortunate. In addition to his medical problems, Duoduo is currently barred from the opportunity to be adopted. Because he was abandoned at an orphanage that was not state-run, Duoduo has no papers, or “hukou” – he has no personhood according to the Chinese government, and without these papers he can never be adopted. Tian Duoduo is thus considered a “Tian kid” because the family name “Tian” means “sky” or “heaven”, which implies that children given this name belong to Heaven. However despite these adversities, Duoduo is lucky to be in the hands of an organization like China Care which has provided him with life-altering surgeries and which has given him a loving foster family with a mom, a dad, and two sisters and a brother.