Man Kidnapped As Child Draws Map, Finds Mom

Miracle after 30 years
By Josh Gardner,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 2, 2022 9:30 AM CST
Map Drawn From Memory Reunites Mother and Son
Stock of child   (Getty Images)

A man in China was able to reunite with his family some 30 years after he was kidnapped with the help of a map he was able to draw from memory. Per BBC, Li Jingwei was abducted in 1989 in Yunnan Province then sold to a family living over 1,000 miles away. Decades later, he was reportedly able to draw a map of the village he was born in, which he posted to social media. "I was taken to Henan by a bald neighbour around 1989, when I was about four years old," he said on TikTok, known as Douyin in China. "This is a map of my home area that I have drawn from memory."

Per Sky News, police were miraculously then able to match the map to a small village where a boy had once gone missing, despite Jingwei not remembering the town name or even the road on which he was raised until age 4. Following a DNA test, and after more than three decades, Jingwei saw his mother again on New Year's Day. While shocking, their story is not uncommon in China, where the restrictive one-child policy once fueled a black market for infant boys. That policy has been lifted, but reunion stories like Jingwei's continue to come out of the country. Just last month, a couple's 14-year search ended when they found their son, Sun Zhuo, who was taken in 2007. (Read more reunion stories.)

We use cookies. By Clicking "OK" or any content on this site, you agree to allow cookies to be placed. Read more in our privacy policy.
Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X