Born in China, raised in the UK, Eva Brookes asks how transracial adoption has shaped her.
Found in China as a newborn and adopted by a white British family 13 months later, Eva grew up in Essex feeling British. But that's not always how other people perceived her.
For most of her life, Eva didn't ask how that impacted her. She just tried to fit in - as a child, that felt safer than standing out. Now, she wants to understand how her experience as a transracial adoptee has shaped her understanding of herself today.
In this series, Eva explores the political, cultural and social forces that impacted her life and the lives of millions of Chinese girls like her; re-visits memories of her childhood, school and family life in the UK; and explores how to connect with her birth culture today.
Through conversations with her adoptive parents and sister, fellow adoptees, journalists, academics and other experts, Eva explores what determines who we become - and how to understand ourselves when parts of our story are missing.
Writer, producer and presenter: Eva Brookes
Executive Producer: Peggy Sutton
Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Jeff Emtman
Artwork: Ellie Walmsley
Assistant Commissioner: Prabhjit Bains
Commissioning Editor: Khaliq Meer
Made in China is a Reduced Listening Production for BBC Sounds Audio Lab.
What happens when one side of the nature nurture equation is a mystery?
Eva has always felt that she’s a product of her environment; her adoptive family, her upbringing - the life she remembers.
But what if her birth family shaped her more than she realises?
Eva explores how adoptees make sense of themselves when their genetic history is a mystery. She questions how much of who we are is shaped by our biology, how much comes from our upbringing. – and how to live with what can’t be known.
With adoptee Mia McGrath, Eva’s adoptive parents Moira and Chris, and neuroscientist Hannah Critchlow.
Writer, producer and presenter: Eva Brookes
Executive Producer: Peggy Sutton
Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Jeff Emtman
Artwork: Ellie Walmsley
Assistant Commissioner: Prabhjit Bains
Commissioning Editor: Khaliq Meer
Made in China is a Reduced Listening Production with BBC Sounds Audio Lab.
10 Feb 2026
3. Culture Vulture
How can Eva connect with Chinese culture, when she has no parents or family to guide her?
Even though she looks Chinese, Eva didn’t feel Chinese growing up with a white British family in Essex. She’s often felt pressure to embody a version of ‘Chineseness’ she doesn’t feel connected to. Now she asks how she can bring her birth heritage into her everyday life on her own terms.
Eva learns to stop feeling guilty about not having learned her birth language and discovers how food can offer much more than physical sustenance. She finds a sense of belonging rooted not in shared upbringing, but in shared disconnection - and begins to feel more confident forging her own path to her birth culture.
With adoptee Jaki Clibbon, writer and community organiser Jenny Lau and chef Irene Hua of the Zao An Collective.
Writer, producer and presenter: Eva Brookes
Executive Producer: Peggy Sutton
Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Jeff Emtman
Artwork: Ellie Walmsley
Assistant Commissioner: Prabhjit Bains
Commissioning Editor: Khaliq Meer
Made in China is a Reduced Listening Production for BBC Sounds Audio Lab.
10 Feb 2026
2. Home, before home
What led to Eva being adopted by a British family, after she was born in China in 2000?
Eva explores the social, political and cultural forces that shaped her life - and the lives of millions of girls like her.
She discovers why the Chinese state limited the number of children each family was allowed, how the One Child Policy was enforced, and what its consequences were for society across China.
She learns how the ideas of ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius led Chinese families to prefer sons rather than daughters. And looks at what factors led more and more western families to adopt Chinese babies, uncovering uncomfortable truths.
With journalist Barbara Demick; professor of sociology and China studies at SOAS University of London, Jieyu Liu; and professor of China studies at King’s College London, Kerry Brown.
This episode includes extracts from the following archive:
The Dying Rooms – directed by Brian Woods and produced by Kate Blewett. A True Vision production for Channel 4.
The Oprah Winfrey Show – produced by Harpo Studios.
A Patchwork of Lies – produced by The China Intercontinental Communication Centre
Writer, producer and presenter: Eva Brookes
Executive Producer: Peggy Sutton
Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Jeff Emtman
Artwork: Ellie Walmsley
Assistant Commissioner: Prabhjit Bains
Commissioning Editor: Khaliq Meer
Made in China is a Reduced Listening Production with BBC Sounds Audio Lab.
10 Feb 2026
1. Beginnings, Plural
All Eva Brookes knows about the beginning of her story is that she was found by the side of the road in China when she was three days old. Thirteen months later she was adopted by a white British couple and travelled to her new home in Essex.
Growing up in the UK, Eva felt British. But that’s not always how other people perceived her. For most of her life, she didn’t ask how that impacted her. She just tried to fit in - as a child, that felt safer than standing out.
Now, she wants to understand - how has the experience of being a transracial adoptee, born in one culture, raised in another, shaped how she understands herself now?
In this episode, Eva returns to her earliest memories in conversation with her adoptive family: parents Moira and Chris and sister Lara. Talking to psychotherapist Alison Roy, she reconsiders adoption not as a story she has already resolved, but as a trauma she is allowed to be curious about.
Writer, producer and presenter: Eva Brookes
Executive Producer: Peggy Sutton
Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Jeff Emtman
Artwork: Ellie Walmsley
Assistant Commissioner: Prabhjit Bains
Commissioning Editor: Khaliq Meer
Made in China is a Reduced Listening Production with BBC Sounds Audio Lab.
9 Feb 2026
Introducing... Made in China
Born in China, raised in the UK, Eva Brookes asks how transracial adoption has shaped her.
Found in China as a newborn and adopted by a white British family 13 months later, Eva grew up in Essex feeling British. But that's not always how other people perceived her.
For most of her life, Eva didn't ask how that impacted her. She just tried to fit in - as a child, that felt safer than standing out. Now, she wants to understand how her experience as a transracial adoptee has shaped her understanding of herself today.
In this series, Eva explores the political, cultural and social forces that impacted her life and the lives of millions of Chinese girls like her; re-visits memories of her childhood, school and family life in the UK; and explores how to connect with her birth culture today.
Through conversations with her adoptive parents and sister, fellow adoptees, journalists, academics and other experts, Eva explores what determines who we become - and how to understand ourselves when parts of our story are missing.
Writer, producer and presenter: Eva Brookes
Executive Producer: Peggy Sutton
Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Jeff Emtman
Artwork: Ellie Walmsley
Assistant Commissioner: Prabhjit Bains
Commissioning Editor: Khaliq Meer
Made in China is a Reduced Listening Production for BBC Sounds Audio Lab.
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
14 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
25 ratings
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