A woman adopted by a British couple during China's one-child policy had personal passages recited verbatim by a TikTok influencer with 20,000 followers. The influencer spoke about being adopted but repeated intimate details originally describing how the woman measured self-worth through Tinder matches and imagined a childhood in China, offering no credit. The woman publicly called out the similarity and was then messaged by the influencer's husband, who dismissed her and accused her of copying. The woman blocked him, made a response video accusing the influencer of plagiarism, and sought to set the record straight for others with similar experiences.
When I wrote that piece, the idea of exposing personal details of my life to scrutiny or criticism was terrifying. Even so, it felt right to share this story in the hope that others might find comfort if they too had had similar experiences. What I wasn't expecting was for someone to take my words and claim them as their own. The influencer spoke of her adoption but she took sections of the article in which I discussed my intimate thoughts and feelings, and passed these off as her own.
She recited how in my early twenties, I measured my self-worth in how many matches I got on Tinder or how many boys I was texting, and having imagined a childhood in China and being raised by my biological parents. Taking the exact phrases I had written, she reposted them to her followers, and then thanked users in the comments when they complimented her. I understand that imitation is the highest form of flattery but this was blatant stealing.
I commented on the video: Have you heard of plagiarism? Soon afterwards, her husband appeared in my DMs on Instagram. He told me I wasn't the only Asian in the world adopted in that time frame, dismissed me as not that special and even claimed I had copied his wife's original videos. I called them both crazy and immediately blocked him.
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