After being kidnapped from his village at just four years old, Li Jingwei grew up with only fragmented memories of his home. He couldn't remember his parents' names or where he came from, but the images of a bamboo grove, a small pond, and a nearby school were etched into his mind.
For 33 years, that was all he had. But in late 2021, inspired by other high-profile family reunions in China, Li decided to take a chance. He sat down and meticulously drew a map of his village entirely from memory. He then posted a video of the map to Douyin (China’s version of TikTok), hoping someone, somewhere, would recognize it.
“I'm a child who's finding his home,” he said in the now-famous video. “I was taken to Henan by a bald neighbor around 1989, when I was about four years old.”
The video quickly went viral, mobilizing both authorities and online sleuths who were captivated by his story. According to Vice, the clues in his map soon pointed to a village near the city of Zhaotong in Yunnan province, more than a thousand miles away from where he was living.
The investigation brought to light the painful context of his story: he had likely been a victim of China's child trafficking black market, which was fueled for decades by the country's one-child policy and a traditional preference for sons.
The Call That Changed Everything
Soon, authorities connected Li with a woman from the village who could be his mother. During a phone call, she described a small but significant detail he hadn't shared publicly: a scar on his chin from a childhood fall. That was the confirmation he needed. A subsequent DNA test made it official.
A Chinese woman cradles her newbornCanva
On January 1, 2022, Li met his mother for the first time in 33 years. Though his father had since passed away, the reunion was the culmination of a lifetime of searching. In the days leading up to the meeting, he shared his overwhelming emotions on Douyin.
“Thirty-three years of waiting, countless nights of yearning, and finally a map hand-drawn from memory, this is the moment of perfect release after 13 days,” he wrote.
His incredible journey proved that even after decades of separation, the power of a child's memory, amplified by community and technology, could finally lead him home.
This article originally appeared earlier this year.
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