A Chinese man who was abducted at the age of four drew a picture of his hometown village as a child and posted it on social media, then found his mother.
Li Jingwei, 37, adopted 33 years ago by a family in Henan, north-central China, retains the memories of her hometown. He heard stories of other people who found their families after being abducted and posted a map of his hometown village on Weibo.
The village maps he drew showed the exact location of houses, mountains, and ponds, as well as details such as what a particular house looked like and the methods the villagers used to cook it.
Police found that the map looked very similar to a village in Jiaotong, a mountainous city in Yunnan province in southwestern China. In the village lived a middle-aged woman who had lost her son 30 years ago. DNA tests confirmed that Jingwei was the son of a middle-aged woman, and the two reunited on New Year’s Day and wept.
Jingwei was kidnapped from the village in 1989 and adopted by a family in Lanqao, Henan Province, about 1,200 miles (about 2,000 km) from her hometown. Jingwei said in an interview that he drew pictures of his hometown every day so that he would not forget where he was born and raised. He said he was kidnapped by an acquaintance who lived in the neighborhood by seducing him with a toy.
According to 2015 statistics, there are 20,000 infant abductions every year in China. Due to the deep-rooted male preference ideology in China, most boys are the target of crime. In 2021, there were many cases of young men reuniting with their biological parents after a long absence. In July, Mr. Guo, who lives in Shandong Province, was reunited with his son 24 years after the kidnapper took his child.
However, local media reported that many adopted children are reluctant to take legal action in order not to hurt their adoptive parents. Jingwei, who is already married and has children, also expressed his affection for his adoptive parents, saying, “My adoptive parents taught me how to be human.”
YTN PLUS Jeong Yoon-ju (younju@ytnplus.co.kr)
[저작권자(c) YTN & YTN plus 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]
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