A hand-drawn map of a village, and the help obtained from social networks, allowed a young man to reconnect with his family more than 30 years after being kidnapped and sold by a child trafficking network in China.
When he was only four years old, in 1988, Li Jingwei was separated from his family in his hometown in Yunnan province and transferred to a village more than 1,100 miles away.
Being so young, he could not remember his full name or his parents, but he could remember the tours he made through his village: the school, a bamboo grove, paths, grazing places and waterways.
When he missed home or was sad, he drew the map of his village in detail from those memories, sometimes even doing it daily, according to the CNN news network from an interview with Jingwei in The Paper medium. .
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Drawing on those memories from three decades ago, Li recently set out on a search for his family: he handcrafted a map of the town and posted it on a popular video-sharing app in China in the hope that someone would identify him.
"I am a boy looking for his home
," Li said in the video on Douyin, known outside of China as TikTok, on December 24.
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In recent years, the work of the police with the help of social networks and technology has made it possible to help people abducted as children to reconnect with their families, with very famous cases such as that of Guo Xinzhen, of whom a movie recently.
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These stories gave Li hope of finding her home.
“I realized that I couldn't wait any longer because my parents would be getting old.
I was worried that when I found out where I am from, they would have already passed away, "he told local Henan Television after publishing his map, according to The Guardian.
The video was widely shared on social media and caught the attention of the Ministry of Public Security, which became involved in the investigation, according to The Paper and other Chinese outlets.
The police identified that the map corresponded to a Yunnan village where there was a woman whose son had disappeared.
From a hand-drawn map, the man was identified as coming from Zhaotong, Yunnan province, China.Arterra / Universal Images Group via Getty
Authorities took DNA samples and the relationship was confirmed just days before the New Year.
Jingwei was then able to connect with her mother by video call.
"
My mother cried as soon as I spoke on the phone,
" she told the local newspaper.
He recognized her immediately: they had the same lips and the same smile.
But the most emotional thing was the reunion in person on January 1.
Video of the meeting, shared on state media and on social media, shows Jingwei falling at her mother's feet and the two hugging through tears.
"
I finally found my baby,
" Li's mother said, according to The Paper.
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Jingwei now plans with her mother for the Lunar New Year, which is celebrated in February in China, and then return to Yunnan to visit her biological father's grave.