Satellite babies feel the pain of separate lives

Reunions can be traumatic for parents, children

Lindy Tse will never forget the night her parents brought her back to the United States from Fujian province when she was 4 years old.

She cried silently throughout the journey because she missed her nainai (grandmother), who raised her in China.

Tse, an assumed name, was a "satellite baby", which refers to children born in the US to Chinese immigrant parents who are sent to China as infants and raised by relatives - typically grandparents - and then returned to the US to start school when they are 5 or 6.

Parents do this for various reasons. They often work antisocial hours or have several jobs. They also want to send their children to China for cultural reasons.

On her return, it took Tse a year before she spoke to her father.

Now 17, she said, "I think it was because we had both lost four years that could have been important to our relationship."

She speaks only English now and has forgotten most of her early childhood spent in a small village with her grandmother. She still feels distantly connected with her parents.

"I just don't know how to show my emotions to them," she said with a shrug.