Chinese Couple Reunite With Their Son 14 Years After He Was Abducted At The Age Of 4
The search comes to an end.
YouTube / Weibo A Chinese couple, Sun Haiyang and his wife, Peng Siying were finally reunited with their son at a heart-breaking ceremony after 14 years.
Sun Zhuo, now 18-years-old, had been abducted in 2007 when he was 4-years-old in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.
His disappearance and his father's search efforts inspired a 2014 Chinese movie, ‘Dearest’ directed by Peter Chan, starring Zhao Wei.
“After 14 years and 57 days, he is a head taller than his mother," Sun Haiyang wrote on Chinese social media site Weibo after the discovery, where his username has remained “Sun Haiyang Looking for Son."
"He brought us local specialities from where he lives now. He is the Sun Zhuo that all of us have looked for all these years."
What happened to Sun Zhuo?
Sun Zhuo was kidnapped by a man at the age of 4 when he was playing in front of his family home. He is reported to have been lured away using a toy.
Throughout the years, his parents extensively searched for their son. They went as far as selling their properties to gather funds for their search and offering rewards to people with information about their son.
Sun Haiyang dedicated his life to searching for his son.
The father named the steamed bun shop in Shenzhen that the couple used to run: “A Shop to Look for my Son," and posted photos of his son and the kidnapper on its signboard.
After finding his son, Sun Haiyang expressed his joy, “I am so happy that I finally found my son. I’ve been to so many places looking for him over the past 14 years. I couldn’t sleep well and was always worried about him. Before the reunion ceremony, I could only remember him as a 4-year-old”.
Haiyang has helped other parents with similar situations and shared his experience with everyone, “Over the past 14 years, I checked every clue anyone gave me. Sometimes, I would be disappointed if I didn’t get a phone call for a few days. I was happy even when liars called me, saying they would exchange clues for the reward. At least, that gave me a glimmer of hope.”
Their story was so moving and emotional that it even inspired a 2014 Chinese movie, ‘Dearest’ directed by Peter Chan.
Sun Zhuo's alleged kidnapper has been arrested.
Police used facial recognition technology to help them identify a suspect, surnamed Wu, who is now being detained in connection to Zhuo's abduction
He was then allegedly sold to a couple who raised him and treated him well. The adoptive father and mother were bailed pending trial.
In a twist, the teen has reportedly opted to stay with his adoptive parents because they had raised him for so long and he had been unaware of his true lineage.
Sun Zhuo's abduction is part of a wide problem in China.
The movie about his disappearance portrayed the important and terrifying issues of child abduction and trafficking that stemmed from the one-child policy in China.
The one-child policy in China was created to reduce the population of the country and isn't in effect anymore, however, it did cause many problems.
Under the one-child policy, many couples had to go through serious consequences if the mother gave birth to a second child such as paying fines or having an abortion.
In many of the rural communities of China, boys are seen as the sole breadwinner of the family so they favor boys rather than girls. That often led many people to give girls up for adoption and were willing to pay a heavy amount for trafficked boys. Due to that cases of child abductions became quite common.
Of course, this isn’t always true and sometimes parents don’t even know they are adopting trafficked children.
Sanika Nalgirkar, M.F.A. is a writer and an Editorial Intern at YourTango who writes on entertainment & news, lifestyle, and pop culture topics.