A Chinese man who was kidnapped at the age of 4 was reunited with his family for the first time in 33 years after a map he drew from memory helped Chinese police identify the area in which he was taken.
In a video posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, Li Jingwei told viewers that he was taken by a neighbor out of the Yunnan province in China and sold into a different family in 1989 in the province of Henan. But because he was so young at the time, Li said he had no memory of what his parents’ names were, his name, his age, or where he was from, so he drew a map every day until he was 13 to help him remember.
“I’m a child who’s finding his home. I was taken to Henan by a bald neighbor around 1989 when I was about 4 years old,” Li said in the video. “This is a map of my home area that I have drawn from memory.”
Li said he did remember certain visual descriptions of his home, such as mountains, a bamboo forest, and a pond next his home.
“I knew the trees, stones, cows, and even which roads turn and where the water flows,” Li told the Paper, a Chinese media outlet, according to the Guardian.
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Li said when he heard about other people in China reuniting with their families after being victims of human trafficking, he tried to find his own family through DNA tests and talking to his adoptive parents but was not successful. Volunteers eventually told him to create a video and post it to Douyin to spread his story, including images of the map he drew, according to the Associated Press. The video received tens of thousands of views.
The police aided in the search and found his home village, and locals helped them track down his family based on the map.
The first time Li spoke with his mother in over 30 years took place over the phone. Li said the woman asked about a scar he had on his chin that she said happened when her missing son fell off a ladder.
“When she mentioned the scar, I knew it was her,” Li told the Associated Press.
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A DNA test confirmed she was his mother, and other details and memories fell into place. Li never reconnected with his father, who died before Li found his family. However, Li told the Associated Press that he looks forward to visiting his father’s grave and telling him that he has returned during the Lunar New Year celebration with his family next month. Li is a father himself with two teenage children.
“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,” Li wrote on his Douyin profile. “Thank you, everyone who has helped me reunite with my family.”
