Li Jingzhi spent more than three decades searching for her son, who went missing as a toddler in central China’s Shaanxi province. She travelled to nearly every Chinese province, following every lead that never panned out until the spring of 2020, when DNA technology confirmed that a man in Chengdu was Li's missing son, Jiajia. After being reunited with her son in a nationally televised event, Li became a high-profile advocate for helping families in China find their missing children. Recounting her long search, Li said she never lost hope. Her son, Jiajia, meanwhile, spoke out for the first time about his years growing up with his foster parents and how reuniting with his birth parents helped him to understand that he was not abandoned.
Comments are disabled for this video.
This car has been around for more than 30 years.
I bought it two months before my family lost it.
I've been keeping it.
When I think of it, I look at this car.
I think of the figure when he was riding this car.
I was born on February 23, 1986.
My son Jiajia was very smart, cute and healthy.
Unfortunately, on April 17, 1988, around six o'clock in the afternoon,
His father took him home from kindergarten.
In Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, in a hotel on West Street,
The child said he wanted to drink water.
His father was two cups back and forth.
For a few minutes, he turned around and never saw the child again.
But I didn't think I'd be looking for 32 years.
I didn't think I'd be doing it year after year.
I thought that as long as I lived in Xunzidu, I would have hope.
I went to Henan most of the time.
I've been to almost every county in Henan.
There are seven or eight children in a village.
I've been to Tibet, Xinjiang and Qinghai.
But I've never been to other provinces.
I've seen one, but not the other.
I think that's a blow.
It makes you feel like you can't live on.
Before the Spring Festival of 2020,
I received three reports.
I transferred these three reports to the Xi'an City Administration.
I don't know which one is my son.
But I won't give up any clues.
I can't go out during the epidemic.
I've been thinking about these three clues over and over again.
Which one looks more like it?
When I received the first report,
I realized that it wasn't a dream anymore.
It was real.
I really found my son.
I was admitted to Wuhan on the 18th.
I arrived in Xi'an on the 15th.
I think it was the night of the 17th or 16th
when I found out what was going on in Xi'an.
I took my cell phone and searched on the Internet.
I searched for my mom on Baidu.
I've seen her.
I've seen her on TV.
When I found out about my mom,
I realized that she had been looking for me for 32 years.
At that moment, I didn't resent her anymore.
I didn't hate her anymore.
I accepted that she was my mom.
The way she ran to me
was still the same as when she was lost.
It was just that she was hungry.
My son has been looking for me for 32 years.
I don't know when I'll die.
I still have a mother.
I don't want to give up.
I'm back.
I'm 36 years old.
I'm married now.
I miss you so much.
I miss my family.
I've been looking for you for 32 years.
When I got home,
I found my mom's stool.
I asked her what she was doing.
When I looked at her,
I saw that her clothes were the same color as my mom's.
But the color of her face was different.
Her skin was so dark.
I thought to myself,
she didn't get so dark every day.
Her face was so dark.
When my mom left,
I looked at her.
I said,
why isn't she as dark as you?
Didn't it rain that day?
Did you forget to cook?
It's winter now.
It's been over a year
Every day,
I'm so happy.
The first time I got pregnant,
I was in junior high school.
When I was in junior high school,
I could feel clearly
that I was wrong.
As a parent,
when your child is sick
or bullied,
as a parent,
you have to be there for them.
My family was different.
I was her father.
I raised her.
She didn't care about me.
I lived with my adoptive father
for over 30 years.
For over 30 years,
she didn't care about you.
She didn't ask,
she didn't care,
she didn't care.
She took care of her.
She was a very familiar person,
but very, very strange.
For me,
what I feel very, very lacking in this life
is that I have lost
the opportunity and time
I also lack
the mother-son relationship
I think this is a very cruel thing
I have the ability to raise my son.
I have the ability to educate my son.
I also have the ability to take care of my son.
But I have been deprived of it.
Let's sit down.
I know how to make braised pork.
It's delicious even if you don't eat it.
It tastes good.
I like it.
It's delicious.
I know how to make braised pork.
It's a little fishy.
No, no, no, no.
It's too salty.
No, no, no.
It's too slippery.
It's really delicious.
It's too slippery.
Don't, don't.
They have been through a lot over the past 30 years.
Especially my sister.
She has been through a lot.
She found her child.
This is a great good thing.
The whole thing is a life trajectory of change.
Life starts anew.
It's just the beginning.
In the future,
we'll start from scratch
and make up for the regrets.
My uncle's ribs are excellent.
Ribs, beef,
braised in brown sauce.
And fried in brown sauce.
There are a lot of parents who have lost their children
and I have been looking for a son for more than 30 years.
We have also established a very close relationship here.
So I found my child,
but they haven't found their child yet.
I also hope that through my help,
my efforts,
I will go down with them together
until their child is found.
I can see it.
Just hang it a little,
and it will come out.
No, it can't be pure white.
The smell is a bit like this.
It is lighter than this color.
That's not pure white.
That's what it's called.
Fungus
White
It's this kind of white, white, white, white.
The white foam.
Yeah, it's all over there.
Put your legs up
and take one of your legs over here.
Because when I first came here,
when I got married,
the kind of things my adoptive father told me
were different from what I said here.
My adoptive father just told me that I was born with another lover.
When I heard that, I didn't want to admit it.
I told him that my father abandoned me when I was born.
Now that I've grown up, he came to look for me.
I said, why didn't you come earlier?
Have you ever doubted that you were adopted?
You have to come out and look for your family.
If you don't look for your family, it's hard for your parents to find you.
It's been more than 30 years since they found their children.
Some of them have been looking for their children for more than 40 years.
In the end, they didn't find them after they died.
For all these parents, they can't let go of their children.
They want to see if their children are still alive.
I didn't expect to find my third child.
I was looking for my children one by one.
I don't believe I can't find them.
How many years has it been?
More than 40 years?
My adoptive father hasn't told me how he got my son.
So the case hasn't been solved yet.
The Public Security Bureau is still pursuing this case.
They want to get rid of this human trafficker.
How did my son die? Who took him?
I really want to find out who this person is.
Maybe the human trafficker will let more children return to their parents.
Last year, when Jiajia came back, I gave her this car.
I asked her if she could still drive it.
Jiajia said, wait for my son to drive it.
I think this is a family heirloom.
When Jiajia came back on the 18th, she was still a little strange to my mother.
After a few days of contact, I lost my sense of strangeness.
I felt like I hadn't seen my family for a long time.
I lost my sense of strangeness.
I told her everything.
I felt comfortable and warm around her.
I felt like I had a home.
I said, when I have a child, I'll let her sit in this car.
I'll take a picture of her.
I haven't experienced it, let her experience it.
I'll keep it as a memento.
This is a family heirloom.
In 1932, I finally found my son.
But I don't think my son and I have that sense of familiarity.
We get along very well.
I'm also enjoying every moment with my mother.
I remember once I was lying next to my son.
I said, thank you, son.
Your return made me feel again the happiness and joy of being a mother.