The Great Chinese Orphan Rescuer
Siew Mei Ang Cheung knows what it's like to be marginalized. Growing up as a Chinese immigrant in Malaysia, she was subject to an educational quota system that she says limited ethnic minorities' opportunities. The precocious youngster was undaunted by the challenges, however, and earned a Kentucky Fried Chicken scholarship to attend high school in England. There, she keenly felt the sting of isolation, but it caused her to reevaluate her priorities and dig deep into the Word of God.
As a 21-year-old college student, Ang Cheung sensed a call to use her talents to address injustice, inequality, and exploitation. At 23, she began working with Vietnamese refugees in Liverpool. Today Ang Cheung is executive director of Christian Action, a 25-year-old, Hong Kong-based organization with a multimillion-dollar budget that provides vital services to refugees, foreign domestic workers, and abandoned children.
Ang Cheung so identifies with the immigrant experience that she never saw herself as Chinese. After many years of working with refugees, she had a dream about an abandoned baby girl in a Chinese hospital whose situation was hopeless. She woke up in tears. The dream involved a friend who refused to help the baby. When she told him about it, he said he and his wife had thought of adopting from China but had decided it would be too difficult. "God revealed my heart to you," he told Ang Cheung.
She says this was the first confirmation that God was calling her to direct her energy (and Christian Action's resources) toward the plight of Chinese orphans. The second was when a Chinese national who lived in Australia smuggled an abandoned baby girl out of China and asked for Ang Cheung's help in adopting her. The third was visiting a state-run Chinese orphanage for herself and seeing how desperate the situation was in the early 1990s.
In 1997, Christian Action signed an agreement with local officials in Qinghai Province to work with indigenous people in caring for abandoned children. China Development Brief reports that Christian Action took over management of the Xining Child Welfare Institute and has since "invested heavily in improving the institution's training, facilities and care practices." The Xining Orphan and Disabled Welfare Center officially opened in 1998, and Christian Action partnered with the local government again in 2007 to open its affiliate, Xining Children's Rehabilitation Center. Now Christian Action has been asked to co-manage several more orphanages in Qinghai Provence, according to Ang Cheung.
The Seminary Gender Gap
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Comments
Sharon O'Neill
My daughter is the little girl in the right-hand side of the picture with the blue jacket on. She was discovered by a retired worker wrapped in a blanket behind a tree on a mountain trail "where the three roads meet." I adopted her at 4 years, after she waited on a special needs adoption list for 2 years. My oldest daughter (also Chinese)and I were taken up the mountainside to the site where Caroline was found. We turned around and were blinded by the light reflecting off of a gold dome (mosque/monestary). The light and the three roads brought to mind the blessed trinity and all of the obstacles that dissolved each time I prayed to God about his will. Caroline received phenomenal care at the Christian Action sponsored orphanage, including trips to Bei Jing for evalautions by experts. She required surgery when she got to the US, but lo and behold the leading world expert works at Hopkins where I am a faculty member. Today, she is a beautiful 10 year old girl, active in swimming and other sports, and a kind christian person thanks to Siew and the incredible staff at the Children's Home.
Siew Mei Cheung-Ang
Christine, thank you for the great article and the kind words you have for me. I am 3rd generation Chinese in Malaysia. Thank you all for the comments posted and I would really appreciate prayers for the children we are serving in Qinghai. God bless.
S Teh
Regardless. Siew Mei's ministry is beyond any credit or praise that anyone serving Our Almighty God can gather and deserve. We praise Our God for you, Siew Mei. God bless you.
Christine A. Scheller
Actually Stephen, I believe she was born in China and her family emigrated when she was very young.
Stephen C
This is more a comment on terminology than on the actual article (which is great, by the way). Unless, Siew Mei Ang herself was born in another country and later emigrated to Malaysia, it is more accurate to describe her as 'an ethnic Chinese in Malaysia' rather than a 'Chinese immigrant in Malaysia'. I may be wrong, but it is more likely that her ancestors emigrated to Malaysia years before she was born ... thus making her the child of immigrants, not an immigrant herself.
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