Wu Shaoqiu, a 75-year-old retired government employee, and his wife felt lonely after their two kids moved abroad. So when city officials in Wuhan, where the couple lives, set up a bold program in 2006 to match empty-nesters with adult "daughters" willing to be adopted, Wu was quick to sign up. [See the Newsweek cover story "Give Us Your Daughters" on the impact of China's one-child rule. ] He and his wife adopted three middle-aged women. They joined the family, visiting on weekends and holidays. At this point, he says, "there's no difference" between his real and adopted children. (None of them wished to be identified by their full names.) NEWSWEEK's Wang Zhenru spoke with Wu on the phone about his experience. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: How did you and your wife come to adopt three daughters?
Wu: I adopted all three in 2006. All of them are more than 40 years old now. My first [was] Fang Fang. I met her at a meeting for lonely elderly couples [looking for] adopted daughters, co-sponsored by the Civil Affairs Department of the Wuhan municipal government and the Wuhan Morning News. She was born in 1964 and works as an assistant general manager in a company. The organizers introduced her to me and we talked. I found I wanted to adopt her as my daughter. So I called my wife and told her; my wife asked me to bring her home. [Fang Fang] brought a bunch of flowers to my wife and called me "Papa" and my wife "Mummy". My wife was very happy to have her as our daughter. She's very attentive [and comes] to see us on weekends and holidays.

Why did you feel the need to adopt?
My son has emigrated to Canada and my daughter emigrated to France. So my wife and I felt lonely at home. Since we're getting on in years, we need to have someone staying beside us, to talk with us from time to time.

How did you meet the other two?
Fang Fang introduced them. One is Fang Fang's classmate Ping Ping [who] works in the Bureau of Information Industry in Wuhan. The third one, Li Li, works in the Wuhan Iron and Steel Company.

All three of my adopted daughters have been very thoughtful. Fang Fang drives us to the hospital whenever my wife or I feel sick. What's more, each time she comes to visit, she buys a lot of gifts for us. On weekends and holidays, all three daughters come if they don't have official business; they do the cooking and housework. Last year, accompanied by my three adopted daughters, my wife and I had a barbecue, and after that, the five of us played cards together. They come to stay with us at every Chinese Lunar New Year. My wife and I feel very satisfied with them.

How do your biological children feel about this?
At the beginning of this year, my real daughter came from France and wanted to meet her three adopted sisters. My real daughter felt very satisfied with them. When she left, my three adopted daughters all went to see her off at the airport.
When my son came back to China to visit us, he first met Ping Ping and Li Li since Fang Fang was out of the town. When Fang Fang learned that my son was about to leave for Canada, she hurried back home to have a reunion with the entire family. My son felt very happy and at ease.

Do you treat your adopted children differently from your biological kids?
Frankly speaking, there is a difference. The difference is that when I feel unhappy, I might easily shout at my real children and say whatever I want. But I have to force myself to be kind to my adopted daughters and sometimes treat them in a way as guests. Besides this, I think there's no difference between the real ones and the adopted ones. None of my three adopted daughters asked for anything from us. I accept them as my real daughters now.

Why did you choose daughters and not sons?
Because daughters are more careful and thoughtful than sons.

Do you think other lonely elderly couples should do the same as you did?
Different families having different situations. People's thinking is also different. Some might prefer to stay alone. So I don't think I can recommend for anyone to do the same as I did.

To tell you the truth, for me adoption was simply for the sake of my spiritual life. We're getting old and we need spiritual comfort. We have plenty of time, but sometimes we have nothing to do and feel lonely. So we need something to fill the void. Adopting daughters is different from hiring a maid. You can't really make your adopted daughters do jobs that maids do. My mother is still alive; she's more than 100 years old. Since we are also in our 70-80s, we hired a maid to care for my mother 24 hours a day.

Did you have pre-conditions before adopting?
I didn't. The main thing is that we have to be happy with each other and have something in common. We also have to understand each other. Before I adopted I heard that a professor from Wuhan University had offered an apartment to a chosen "daughter" he was looking to adopt. But I had offered nothing and my three adopted daughters asked for nothing. They simply are trying to do something good for society.

Did you do background checks?
As a matter of fact, I did some investigation before I finally adopted them, [looking into] their personalities and whether or not they are good women with good records. I think the elderly and young people have to have one pre-condition before they establish this relationship. They should have more or less the same educational background, more or less the same living environment. Otherwise, it would be difficult for them to communicate. To tell you the truth, I had refused two girls who wanted to be my adopted daughters. The reason was that we shared different thinking and we didn't have the same educational background.

Your daughters have their own biological parents and children as well. Do you all get together as one big happy family?
The relations between my family and my adopted daughters' families have expanded and improved with each passing day. For example, when we heard that our adopted daughter Ping Ping's real mother was sick, my wife and I went to visit her. During the recent Lunar New Year holiday, all three of my adopted daughters brought their sons and daughter to see us. The teenagers sang and danced [and] we really felt very happy.

Does the government encourage such arrangements?
I don't know what provincial government officials think about this. But I think the Wuhan city government is in favor [because city officials set up the introductions]. The aged need to be cared for and need to talk with someone when they feel lonely. My wife and I feel very satisfied with our three adopted daughters. We have been very dear to each other for more than one year.