A Cross-border Reunion after 13 Years of Separation

By Wang Yuqin

Time and space shall never cut the family bond. From the reunion of Liang Jinglang (Kylee Bowers) and her birth family after 13 years of separation, we know that one's persistency can truly make miracles in life.

血濃于水的親情并不能被時間與空間分隔。13年后，跨洋重聚，梁晶浪的故事讓我們相信，鍥而不舍的努力，真的能帶來奇跡。

In May of 2005, Liang Hua,aged 30, left his hometown of Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province and went to Ronggui Town in Shunde City, Guangdong to work. He brought his second daughter, 5-year-old Jinglang,with him and planned to enroll her at a local kindergarten.

He temporarily left his daughter in his brother Liang Feng's dormitory that was situated at the junction of Shunde City and Dongfeng Town of Zhongshan City and then found a place to rent on that very day. He made sure that his daughter could go to the kindergarten that he had been contacting. Everything seemed to be going on very well.

A storm hit the town that afternoon. As Liang Hua, holding an umbrella in his hand, was walking out of the kindergarten that he chose for his daughter,he got a call from his brother,who cried, “Brother, Jinglang is missing!” Like a bolt from the blue, these words left Liang Hua dumbfounded for a second, and then he ran madly into the heavy rain.

During the first week after his daughter went missing, Liang Hua had hardly eaten anything.He went out every day to put up posters all over the place for his missing daughter. On the 7th day,when he returned to his rented house, he was so exhausted he could hardly make it up the stairs.Eventually, he fell down in front of the door.

To get familiar with every street, Liang Hua changed his job frequently, but he heard nothing about his daughter.He had extended his search area to the entire Guangdong Province in 2006. Over two years, he was constantly traveling between cities like Zhongshan,Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. He usually stayed in a job for a couple of months, to save around two or three thousand yuan, and then he would quit. He would send half of his salary to his family in his hometown, and use the remaining half as his travel expenses to look for his daughter.

In the following years, Liang Hua further extended his journey to Beijing, Jiangxi, and Fujian. He was so eager to get hold of even a sliver of hope in the crowds.However, he was rewarded only with disappointments, time and again.

Coincidental Tragedy

On his return to his hometown for the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2011,some relatives said to him, “It is time to stop, and take care of your family.”

It was then Liang Hua realized that even his youngest daughter was old enough to start schooling.However, he wouldn't give up looking for her. Finally, he decided to take all three of his children to Shunde.

At their rented house in Xingtan Town of Shunde City,Liang Hua always kept a seat for Jinglang, in the hope that she would come home one day,and study just as her siblings did. What was encouraging was that all three kids were doing well academically despite their poverty, and one wall of their home was covered with 74 certificates of merit.

“It is such a pity that not one is from Jinglang,” the mere thought of his second daughter still missing, made the tough man teary-eyed.

As time went by, the kids gradually grew up. Over and over again, Liang Hua kept showing them the picture of little Jinglang throughout the years. He urged the kids to study hard, and work together to find Jinglang after they grew up. One of his relatives said, “Liang Hua is the only one in the family who believes Jinglang is still alive.”

Jinglang is indeed alive.

On May 20, 2005, Jinglang left her uncle's dormitory to search for his father, following the way he left in her memory.She went so far away from the dorm that she got lost. A kindhearted man found her and put her in Zhongshan Children's Welfare House, where she stayed for the next 7 years. As the staff in the House gave her a new name Zhong Fengmin, her former name, Liang Jinglang, had become untraceable.

Your Freedom and Right

Sandy, an American mom, came to Zhongshan Children's Welfare House in the year of 2012, and she adopted Jinglang with the help of a foundation. At that time, Sandy only obtained basic information about the little girl,on which it read, “She could make simple crafts as a 7-year-old,”“she was able to do the laundry when she was 9,” and “she was suffering from malnutrition.” But nobody knew anything about her background.

志愿者向走出接機口的梁晶浪獻花。Volunteers brought fiowers to Liang Jinglang at the terminal.

As Jinglang learned some English after living in the USA for half a year, she clearly told Sandy about her hope of finding her back to China to look for her original Chinese family. She firmly believed that she was not an abandoned child as reported by the welfare house, but a kid who got lost from her father.

“One day, I will find my father,”she said to her adoptive mother.

Approving Jinglang's request,Sandy promised she would take her parents when she grew up,“Sweetheart, this is your freedom and right.”

When Liang Jinglang turned 15 in 2014, both Sandy and her husband accompanied her to Zhongshan, Guandong, in search of her family.

Relying on Jinglang's vague memories, they arrived at the intersection between Rongui Town of Shunde and Zhongshan,where she got lost years ago, in hope of finding some clue. Yet,Jinglang couldn't find the bridge in her memory, and they went back empty-handed.

She Is My Daughter

As Liang Hua did not have a steady job at the time, together with the large expenses involved in searching for his daughter, the family was often living on loans.By 2018, their debt reached about eighty or ninety thousand yuan.All their relatives and friends tried to talk Liang Hua into giving up his persistence, “After all,thirteen years has passed. It will be impossible to find her.”

He was rather insistent, “Even if I have to go bankrupt, I am determined to reunite with my daughter.”

Meanwhile, by working even harder in her study and getting straight As, Liang Jinglang was admitted to the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign. She started planning to work so she could save enough money for her trip back to China to find her family. She also began to visit Chinese websites about missing people, like baobeihuijia.com,always feeling like she would go back to her home in China.

With the help from volunteers at Baobeihuijia, Liang Jinglang posted her life experiences and hope of finding her family online, and made contact with journalists fromNanfang Dailyin Guangdong in March of 2018.

Some of Liang Hua's relatives and friends happened to read the news reports, and forwarded them to him through WeChat. As soon as he had a clear look at the girl in the picture, who was wearing short hair and had a mole on her nose, tears fiooded his eyes all at once, “Yes, she is my daughter.Although thirteen years has passed, I am still able to see the same little girl that got lost.”

Dad, You Are Right

After carefully checking and comparing their information,volunteers helped them find each other on WeChat. They arranged a paternal test for them as well.Liang Jinglang sent her blood sample back to China, allowing a DNA comparison with Liang Hua.Late on March 3, 43-year-old Liang Hua sent a friend request to Kylee (Liang Jinglang's English name) on WeChat. Seeing his request get confirmed, Liang Hua became quite nervous. His fingers hesitated while editing his first message to Kylee on the screen.After deleting “child” and “hi,”he ended up sending the message“Miss, can I ask you a question?”

“Are there two hair whorls on your head?” After getting a positive answer, he continued asking, “Do you remember when you were little, you broke your arm as you fell down on the stage in front of our home?”

It was 10 am on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. While reading these messages from China with her upper body resting on the desk, Liang Jinglang let out a good cry.

Yes! He got everything right in these messages.

Liang Jinglang replied to Liang Hua: “Dad, you are right.”

Upon reading these words,Liang Hua couldn't hold his emotion any longer, and cried uncontrollably on the shoulder of his wife.

They scheduled a video call,during which Liang Jinglang apologized to Liang Hua, “I am so sorry, I don't remember what you look like.” With tears in his eyes,Liang Hua told his daughter that her real name was Liang Jinglang,and she had an elder sister, a younger sister and brother. Both father and daughter tried to piece together the 13 years lost in their lives—the forgotten people and names, as well as the time filled with love, persistence, and resistance.

he Will Never Get Lost Again

After more than a month awaiting verification from DNA analysis,the result confirmed that they were father and daughter. Upon hearing the good news, Liang Jinglang, who finally found her Chinese family, cried happy tears,and across the vast ocean, her birth parents were doing exactly the same thing.

On July 1, 2018, Liang Jinglang and her American foster mother, Sandy, walked out of the arrival hall at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport.The moment they saw their longlost daughter, Liang Hua and his wife got so emotional that they were shaking all over. Crying“Jinglang” aloud, they rushed over to their daughter.

Cuddling with her parents,whom she hadn't seen for 13 years, the long-lost daughter kissed them with love.

Later, Liang Hua took Jinglang back to hometown, to pay respect to their ancestors. During the days they were together at home, he had showed his love and blessings for his daughter by making tables of dishes.

To some people, Li ang Jinglang's getting lost years ago had dramatically changed her destiny. Since her adoption by the American couple in 2012, she had received good education, and was accepted at a world-known university. Maybe only Liang Hua was clear of the unrecoverable damage to the family brought by the 13-year-long separation.

Watching Jinglang reaching the security checkpoint at the airport,Liang Hua felt the same pain, the one he went through when he first lost her, coming all over again.Anyhow, he seemed to get over it pretty soon, and turned to his tearful wife, saying: “Jinglang will never get lost again. She is healthy and talented, and loved by two pairs of parents in the world. She is happy. Isn't this good enough?What else do we crave for?”

Finally, Liang Hua was able to let go of the burden that he had been carrying for the past 13 years.

梁晶浪和美國養母走出接機口，與親生父母重聚。Accompanied by her American adoptive mother, Liang Jinglang went to the arrivals hall to reunite with her birth parents.