4. Kellan: An Unfiltered Chat Between Two Adoptees from the Same Chinese Orphanage

About this episode

Shaosheen and Kellan discuss their experiences as adoptees from the same Chinese orphanage, focusing on healing and identity.

In this deeply personal episode, Shaosheen talks with Kellan, a queer transracial adoptee and somatic therapist, about their journey of healing, identity, and growing up adopted from China in the UK. Kellan shares how somatic therapy can help adoptees process trauma through the body and explores the complexities of transracial adoption, belonging, and self-discovery. Shaosheen and Kellan were both adopted from the same orphanage in China, but weren't in touch growing up, so this episode was a...

People in this episode

Host: Shaosheen Jewel-Quirk

Guest: Kellan

Topics covered

• adoption
• identity
• trauma
• self-discovery
• transracial adoption
• belonging

Keywords

• adoptee
• somatic therapy
• transracial adoption
• China
• UK
• identity
• trauma

Mentioned in this episode

Places: China, UK

More episodes of Not Made In China

• 15. Brooke: On Growing Up as a British Adoptee and Staying Connected to Birth Family · June 10, 2026 · 1h 7m
• 14. Ming: Going Back to China for the First Time · May 26, 2026 · 36 min
• 13. Mariane: Being a Chinese Adoptee in Canada and Making Sense of My Identity · May 12, 2026 · 46 min
• 12. Emma: Thinking Adoption Hadn’t Affected Me—Until It Did · April 28, 2026 · 59 min
• 11. Anna: Adoption, Faith & Finding Identity as a Chinese Adoptee · March 31, 2026 · 1h 21m
• 10. Mackenzie: Falling Pregnant at 17: Why I Chose an Adoption Plan for My Daughter · March 17, 2026 · 31 min