\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDespite these mothers-to-be may come from different social backgrounds, they share the desire to provide to their future children a freedom that isn\u2019t granted in their country of origin. They all have in common a na\u00efve recklessness in embarking upon an adventure they have idealised. The film is heart-wrenching and graphic in portraying the physical ordeal the birthing-mothers confront within the hospital structures and the twists of fate they succumb to during their experience.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/American-Baby1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Leslie Tai\u2019s documentary comes across as an insightful investigative piece that sheds a light on a phenomenon that reached its maximum peak between 2012 and 2016. During the pandemic the Chinese birth tourism industry went on a hiatus and currently the U.S.-China relationship has made having an \u201cAmerican baby\u201d less desirable than before. However, what occurred during those years is indicative of a speculation on the aspirations and anxieties of a censored society, that was striving to break free and ended up entangled in an exploitative web.<\/p>\n
In Southern California there was an invisible army of undocumented nannies, cooks, and drivers who serviced the pregnant Chinese women in America, most of whom didn\u2019t even speak English and completely relied upon the organisation. Chino Hills \u2014 ranked as one of the top places to live in the United States \u2014 was the stage of this story. This is where the 17-bedroom maternity hotel, housed several ten Chinese nationals and their newborn babies.<\/p>\n
We discover how the entire business developed an efficient supply-chain and became extremely profitable, since Chinese birth tourists in their third trimester spent from $30,000 to over $100,000 on \u201cbirthing vacations.\u201d From a sociological perspective it is startling to witness how birthing a child in America became a new status symbol in contemporary China. The demand skyrocketed and what is important to highlight is that this entrepreneurial activity was never illegal. In fact the 14th<\/sup> Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. No one in How To Have An American Baby <\/i><\/b>is represented engaged in illegal activities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/American-Baby2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Leslie Tai captures the way fortunes and tragedies befall on these women with utmost sensitivity. She discreetly gives us a glimpse of what is happening. Working as a director and cinematographer she relates to her female characters as a confidante who can help spread a powerful message of warning, simply by using her camera.<\/p>\n
This is not the first time that the Chinese-American filmmaker used her fluency in her two cultures to bring forth the intersections between the Eastern and Western hemispheres of the globe. This is blatant in her feature films Lonely Lotus<\/i><\/b> and Sister Heaven Sister Earth<\/i><\/b>, and above all in her short My American Surrogate<\/i><\/b>, that focused on the way China\u2019s wealthy and infertile couples flocked to Southern California to hire American surrogates to have their babies for them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHow To Have An American Baby<\/i><\/b> succeeds in conveying an empathetic experience, where Western women can feel the vulnerability of the Chinese mothers portrayed in the documentary. As we have become engulfed in an era where the \u201cYellow Peril\u201d dominates the mainstream media discourse of rising China, spectators can perceive the helplessness of the protagonists of this cinematic reportage. The film thus becomes \u2014 quoting Leslie Tai \u2014 \u201can allegory for America\u2019s fears and tensions surrounding immigration, homeland security, race, class, and the viability of the American Dream in today\u2019s world.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n
Final Grade: B+<\/p>\n
Check out more of Chiara\u2019s articles<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Filmmaker Leslie Tai provides a cinematic peek into the soaring latent economy that addresses Chinese pregnant women who travel to the United States to give birth, to provide a better future for their babies. How To Have An American Baby \u2014 part of the 2023 DOC NYC line-up \u2014 is a choral piece that intertwines…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[18859,18864,18865,6132,5081,18857,18858,18861,1244,18863,18862,18860],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
DOC NYC: How To Have An American Baby, A Gut-Wrenching Account Of How The Birth Tourism Industry Becomes A Geopolitical Parable | Cinema Daily US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Filmmaker Leslie Tai provides a cinematic peek into the soaring latent economy that addresses Chinese pregnant women who travel to the United States to give birth in "How to Have an American Baby."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DOC NYC: How To Have An American Baby, A Gut-Wrenching Account Of How The Birth Tourism Industry Becomes A Geopolitical Parable\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Filmmaker Leslie Tai provides a cinematic peek into the soaring latent economy that addresses Chinese pregnant women who travel to the United States to give birth, to provide a better future for their babies.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cinema Daily US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-09T02:31:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-09T16:59:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/How-to-Have-an-American-Baby_Film-Poster.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"511\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"763\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075\",\"name\":\"DOC NYC: How To Have An American Baby, A Gut-Wrenching Account Of How The Birth Tourism Industry Becomes A Geopolitical Parable | Cinema Daily US\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/How-to-Have-an-American-Baby_Film-Poster.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-09T02:31:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-09T16:59:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e4cad8d4708cb53e3944d993adf68e5\"},\"description\":\"Filmmaker Leslie Tai provides a cinematic peek into the soaring latent economy that addresses Chinese pregnant women who travel to the United States to give birth in \\\"How to Have an American Baby.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/How-to-Have-an-American-Baby_Film-Poster.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/How-to-Have-an-American-Baby_Film-Poster.jpg\",\"width\":511,\"height\":763,\"caption\":\"How to have an American Baby\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"DOC NYC: How To Have An American Baby, A Gut-Wrenching Account Of How The Birth Tourism Industry Becomes A Geopolitical Parable\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/\",\"name\":\"Cinema Daily US\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e4cad8d4708cb53e3944d993adf68e5\",\"name\":\"Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Chiara-Spagnoli-Gabardi-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Chiara-Spagnoli-Gabardi-150x150.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi\"},\"description\":\"Works as film critic and journalist who covers stories about culture and sustainability. With a degree in Political Sciences, a Master\u2019s in Screenwriting & Film Production, and studies at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, Chiara has been working in the press since 2003. Italian by blood, British by upbringing, fond of Japanese culture since the age of 7, once a New Yorker always a New Yorker, and an avid traveller, Chiara collaborates with international magazines and radio-television networks. She is also a visual artist, whose eco-works connect to her use of language: the title of each painting is inspired by the materials she upcycles on canvas. Her \u2018Material Puns\u2019 have so far been exhibited in four continents, across ten countries. She is a dedicated ARTivist, donating her works to the causes and humanitarians she supports, and is Professor of Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts at Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.cinemadailyus.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=6\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"DOC NYC: How To Have An American Baby, A Gut-Wrenching Account Of How The Birth Tourism Industry Becomes A Geopolitical Parable | Cinema Daily US","description":"Filmmaker Leslie Tai provides a cinematic peek into the soaring latent economy that addresses Chinese pregnant women who travel to the United States to give birth in \"How to Have an American Baby.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"DOC NYC: How To Have An American Baby, A Gut-Wrenching Account Of How The Birth Tourism Industry Becomes A Geopolitical Parable","og_description":"Filmmaker Leslie Tai provides a cinematic peek into the soaring latent economy that addresses Chinese pregnant women who travel to the United States to give birth, to provide a better future for their babies.","og_url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075","og_site_name":"Cinema Daily US","article_published_time":"2023-11-09T02:31:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-11-09T16:59:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":511,"height":763,"url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/How-to-Have-an-American-Baby_Film-Poster.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075","name":"DOC NYC: How To Have An American Baby, A Gut-Wrenching Account Of How The Birth Tourism Industry Becomes A Geopolitical Parable | Cinema Daily US","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/How-to-Have-an-American-Baby_Film-Poster.jpg","datePublished":"2023-11-09T02:31:07+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-09T16:59:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e4cad8d4708cb53e3944d993adf68e5"},"description":"Filmmaker Leslie Tai provides a cinematic peek into the soaring latent economy that addresses Chinese pregnant women who travel to the United States to give birth in \"How to Have an American Baby.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/How-to-Have-an-American-Baby_Film-Poster.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/How-to-Have-an-American-Baby_Film-Poster.jpg","width":511,"height":763,"caption":"How to have an American Baby"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=20075#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"DOC NYC: How To Have An American Baby, A Gut-Wrenching Account Of How The Birth Tourism Industry Becomes A Geopolitical Parable"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/","name":"Cinema Daily US","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e4cad8d4708cb53e3944d993adf68e5","name":"Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Chiara-Spagnoli-Gabardi-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Chiara-Spagnoli-Gabardi-150x150.jpg","caption":"Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi"},"description":"Works as film critic and journalist who covers stories about culture and sustainability. With a degree in Political Sciences, a Master\u2019s in Screenwriting & Film Production, and studies at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, Chiara has been working in the press since 2003. Italian by blood, British by upbringing, fond of Japanese culture since the age of 7, once a New Yorker always a New Yorker, and an avid traveller, Chiara collaborates with international magazines and radio-television networks. She is also a visual artist, whose eco-works connect to her use of language: the title of each painting is inspired by the materials she upcycles on canvas. Her \u2018Material Puns\u2019 have so far been exhibited in four continents, across ten countries. She is a dedicated ARTivist, donating her works to the causes and humanitarians she supports, and is Professor of Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts at Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.cinemadailyus.com"],"url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=6"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}