Chinese Man adopted by Singaporean Family
21 year old Davis Tan is willing to live in a cage in return for a loving family.
SINGAPORE – It was a Friday evening in February in Singapore. Davis Tan, a 21 year old Chinese male who is obsessed with smoking and eating Fishball noodles, was still sleeping in his makeshift cage in his white undies.
When we slowly approached him, he woke up and stared at us blankly. We asked him if he could tell us a little more about himself. He pushed back his black hair and started telling us his story.
“I was born on Sept. 22, 1990,” he said. “My mom was 15 at the time. She couldn’t take care of me then, and she gave me to my grandma. It was only going to be for a few short months.”
It was, in fact, the beginning of 14 years of permanently temporary living for Davis, much of his childhood spent in homes where he didn’t really belong and, toward the end, with a few exceptions, wasn’t really wanted — at least, as far as he could tell.
Davis’s grandmother gave him back to his mother when Davis was 7. Davis’s mother abandoned the boy at age 11. She left Davis at Toa Payoh Adoption Centre, whereby he was waiting patiently for potential families to take him in.
In the next three years Davis lived in eight foster homes and two emergency shelters.
Then, just when it seemed nobody would ever give him a real home, an unlikely Singaporean couple stepped forward: Newlyweds Susan Lim and Eric Chai, only 26 and 27 themselves, said they wanted to adopt him. Susan was one of his social workers and Eric was a teacher teaching biology lab classes at a popular secondary school in Singapore. However, they had a condition. Davis had to be placed in a cage so that he couldn’t run around the house and make a mess of everything.
Davis reluctantly agreed to the conditions because he was desperate and in need of a good family to take care of him. However, he added that he was beginning to get use to the feeling of living in a cage. Ever since he was adopted, Davis has been sleeping, relieving himself and taking his 3 meals in his cage. Once a day, Davis will be let out of the cage for an hour for him to run around the house.
Although the adoption can’t be formalized for at least five months, Davis said that he feels that he is already part of the family. He believed that this could be a happy-ever-after ending to the story of his permanently temporary childhood.
“This isn’t something we’re just trying out,” said Susan, beside Eric on the couch.
“We’re making a huge commitment to him, and he’s making a huge commitment to us,” Eric said. “It’s forever. Family doesn’t give up on each other. … I tell him he’s our firstborn. He’s our son. He always will be.”
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