World’s Largest ‘Baby Exporter’ Confronts Its Painful Past

The topic of this article has been of major interest for me recently; having just watched a documentary from South China Morning Post on the topic, so I was interested in seeing on how it compared to the stuff I watched.

The article was written by Choe Sang-Hun, who got access to declassified government documents while working on it.

He starts by presenting us to Mia Lee Sorensen, a South Korean that got adopted in Denmark. The lead it’s kind of vague on what the article is about, but I feel like it doesn’t really need to be that complex considering that the title and subtitle are already enough to grab your attention.

The author then proceeds to explain to us the circumstances of South Koreas adoption crisis came to be, and why is it getting relevant again today, I think he really does a good job explaining this first, to then follow up with the main character of the news story, as this problem is not a exactly easy one to get a grasp of. He spends more than half of the article educating us about it, but although it feels like a lot, it is definitely necessary for the understanding of said article.

We are then properly presented to people affected by said crisis, and what they are doing to achieve answers for their struggles, shedding necessary light on this problem.

Overall the article is very well explained, and it leaves the reader satisfied, by choosing to focus more on the problem instead of the people, it avoids the issue of having too much information, or to have to tell two stories at once.

Lastly, the author puts a quote that really makes you think about the issue politically, which was a nice touch.

Compared to the South China Morning Post video, the NY Times article has a better sense of fulfillment, as the documentary choose to focus more in one person, and it doesn’t really conclude her search, because such conclusion didn’t happen yet. By showing more of the issue, I believe the Times articles helps to bring light to a rather unknown problem.