Growing up, Kang Ying didn’t think much about the fact that she was adopted. Her family, farmers in a rural county of China’s south-western Sichuan province, never treated her differently. When Kang asked about her birth parents, she was told she had been found on the street, a little girl no more than four years old, probably abandoned.
In March, Kang, now 28, learned that was not the whole story. Married and with children of her own, she began to wonder about her own mother. She searched online for “child lost more than 20 years ago” and came across a sketch that made her stop. The drawing had been posted by a couple in Chengdu, about 100 miles from where she grew up, who had been searching for their daughter for the last 24 years. The father, a taxi driver, had been handing out cards about his missing daughter to all of his passengers. The online ad was their latest effort.
In March, Kang, now 28, learned that was not the whole story. Married and with children of her own, she began to wonder about her own mother. She searched online for “child lost more than 20 years ago” and came across a sketch that made her stop. The drawing had been posted by a couple in Chengdu, about 100 miles from where she grew up, who had been searching for their daughter for the last 24 years. The father, a taxi driver, had been handing out cards about his missing daughter to all of his passengers. The online ad was their latest effort.
