Homecoming, redefined. After 65 years, dressed to the nines, with the red carpet rolled out, gongs and drums pounding, and kneeling down before a portrait of his deceased parents, this long gone Wuxinese wept bitterly. “Mum, Dad, your son has come home”.
That was 12 February, 2025. But it all began in 1960. That’s when Hu Yinghua was just 8 months old. One of nine children, Yinghua’s mother could offer little in the way of milk. Being a family of few means and with milk powder just a future dream, Yinghua was sent to a caring friend in Shanghai.
But she too could not provide the necessary care. And so the mother finally had no choice but to leave the child at the door of a family she felt to be compassionate. Avoiding police patrols, she later could find no trace of her child or the potential adoptive family, to return to Yixing in Wuxi, in tears.
Still a baby, Yinghua was to end up in Inner Mongolia, where he would have no choice but to drink the milk of seven or eight women, including that of his adoptive sister, together with his nephew.
To put some perspective on the then situation, in the late 1950s and early 60s, over 3,000 orphans found themselves on the prairies of Inner Mongolia, having come from China’s southern provinces and cities, to grow up under the care of local people. As per the Yangtze Evening News, these children are also affectionately called, “Children to the Country”. Hu was one such child.
Fast forward to late last year when, on 30 December, Hu went to his town’s pharmacy to buy a blood test. This was the way in which he could find his true family, he felt, sending the samples and his inquiry to the local Public Security Bureau.
It would not take long. January of this year was to see a flurry of activity, as suspected kinship was established. Hu’s link with Wuxi reemerged.
Then this past Saturday, 8 February, Hu received the news, whereupon he shed tears of excitement, learning that after 6 decades, he had found his home.
Hence it came to be that Hu took his wife’s hand and walked the red carpet on 12 February with flowers in their arms, pursued by gaggle of paparazzi, with villagers on either side. Their shouts were incessant; “Welcome home, welcome home, welcome home”.
Also present to witness the reunion was Wu Damu, the PSB captain who had presided over the search for Hu’s biological family. Having come all the way from Inner Mongolia for the occasion, Wu was also keen to reach out to others who may be seeking long lost relatives, reminding that wherever one may be, there are volunteers nearby who will care over blood samples to put them into the hands of those who can help.
