Sharing a deeply personal part of your life on social media can be daunting and even unimaginable for some.
However, a Singaporean woman decided to put a twist on “hardlaunching” the fact that she was adopted as a child.
25-year-old Charlene Jody Lim made a 50-second karaoke-style video where she changed the lyrics of the 2009 Mandopop song 明天 (Tomorrow), adding hilarious lines such as “I am from China but my Chinese so (sic) bad”.
The video also included slow-motion clips of her acting dramatically at a food court and a playground.
While she broke the news in a humorous way, she clarified in a text overlay that the announcement is, in fact, “not a joke”.
Source: @charshimi_ on TikTok
Charlene shared that, even as a child, she found it odd that her health booklet does not indicate her blood type.
Additionally, her birth certificate also said that she was born in a hospital in China.
Her mum would come up with different reasons each time she asked, but Charlene didn’t think much of it.
Source: @charshimi_ on TikTok
Three years ago, when Korean blood type personality tests became popular, she decided to ask her mum again about her blood type.
However, she was surprised when her mum told her that she was actually adopted.
Charlene’s adoptive mum explained that she previously had a miscarriage.
Since doctors removed her uterus, she was unable to bear a child.
In 2001, she discovered that her friend’s family in China was giving up their baby for adoption.
Charlene shared that back then, China still had the one-child policy and her biological family already had a son older than her.
Source: @charshimi_ on TikTok
After telling the family she would adopt the baby, Charlene’s mum took a flight to Shanxi and went to a rundown village that had no electricity.
“When she reached the house, I was malnourished and drank rice water instead of milk,” Charlene shared.
After many discussions, flying her biological family to Singapore for a house visit, and signing official documents, Charlene was adopted at only a few months old.
Charlene’s mum promised her grandparents that she would never tell her the truth that she was adopted.
“They didn’t want me to feel like they weren’t my real family,” Charlene explained.
She added that her mum also told her the truth because her grandparents had passed away that same year.
Source: @charshimi_ on TikTok
“After finding out that I was adopted, I went through a really big identity crisis, but I’m okay now and I’m hardlaunching this to everyone,” Charlene said.
She also quipped that, after everything, she still does not know her blood type.
Speaking to MS News, Charlene, who works as a Senior Content Strategist, said she is her adoptive parents’ only child.
She had decided to share her adoption story in a humorous way as her content is typically focused around comedy.
“I decided to hardlaunch my story with this old-school Chinese karaoke song because I thought it was funny,” she said, adding that most of her close friends already know that she was adopted.
“I told all my close friends about it, but I knew I wanted to one day share about it in my account since it was a very crazy story on how I found out.”
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Featured image adapted from @charshimi_ on TikTok.