China: man kidnapped in childhood finds family after drawing village where he lived

After being kidnapped as a child more than 30 years ago in China, a man was reunited with his parents this week – thanks to social media, online detectives and a map he drew from memory.

In 1988, Li Jingwei was just four years old when he was kidnapped by a man he knew from the small region where his family lived in southwestern Yunnan Province. He was taken to live with another family in central Henan province, according to state-run media The Paper.

Even as a child, Li realized he had been taken away from home — but he couldn’t get back, even as he got older, he told The Paper. He didn’t remember his birth name, the names of his parents, or the name of his village.

But he remembered what his native village was like: where trees grew, cows grazed, roads were winding, rivers flowed. He remembered the paddy fields and lakes near his home, and where bamboo shoots grew on the nearby mountain. As a child, whenever he was sad or homesick, he would draw a picture of his village – eventually drawing at least once a day; he told the newspaper.

Child abduction has long been rampant in China, a problem experts say has been exacerbated by the country’s one-child policy, which has been relaxed in recent years. For decades, those who had a second child received hefty fines or were forced to have an abortion.

Many Chinese families – especially those in rural areas – have traditionally considered boys more capable of supporting and continuing the family line. This demand has created a black market for boys and has led many families to give girls up for adoption.

In recent years, technology, social media and dedicated police departments have helped a number of kidnapped people, now adults, to be reunited with their biological families. A prominent case was Guo Xinzhen, who was kidnapped in 1997 at the age of two.

His parents’ desperate search across the country to find him inspired a movie — and, last summer, his discovery and their widely publicized reunion.

Recent success stories have inspired Li to try again to find his parents. So he drew a memory map of his home village and shared it online. His childhood practice of daily drawing paid off: the sketch shows a remarkable level of detail including winding paths, houses and highways – even a tag showing where a buffalo once lived.

“It’s been so many years, I don’t know if anyone in my family is looking for me,” Li said in a video posted on Chinese video platform Douyin. “I want to get to see my parents again while they’re still here.”

The photo was widely publicized on social media, attracting the attention of the Ministry of Public Security, which was involved in the investigation, according to The Paper and other state media outlets.

Soon, authorities located Li’s suspected birth mother in Zhaotong City, Yunnan. Authorities collected his DNA samples to compare and confirmed their relationship on Dec. 28.

After the DNA comparison, Li made a video call to her mother and recognized her immediately. “My mom and I have the same lips, even my teeth,” he said. Several days later, on the morning of January 1, they met at a police station in Henan.

The video of the meeting, widely shared by state media and social media, shows Li falling at her mother’s feet and the pair embracing in tears, surrounded by supporters and other members of her biological family. “I finally found my baby,” said Li’s mother, according to The Paper.

The pair thanked the public safety department for their part in the investigation and for the volunteers and netizens who helped track the village on their map.

Li now plans to spend Lunar New Year in February with his mother and return to Yunnan to visit his biological father’s grave.