Chinese boy lost in train station 28 years ago, adopted by Dutch couple, on epic search for biological family

Kind-hearted people sent him to an orphanage and he was adopted by Dutch couple Jozef and Maria Martens in 1996.

The couple named him Gouming, after the name the orphanage gave him, Gou Yongming, so he would remember where he came from.

His adoptive parents supported him in the search for his biological parents.

In 2007, the family returned to China to search for clues, but the orphanage had disappeared. But Gouming never gave up his search.

He spent five years relearning Mandarin he had forgotten and worked part-time to pay for three trips to China during his university years.

In 2012, he registered with Baobeihuijia, Baby Come Home, a volunteer operation aimed at helping people find their lost loved ones, and searched for his biological parents with the help of volunteers.

In the meantime, he completed his studies at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and obtained a doctorate in linguistics at McGill University in Canada.

He now works in Canada as an AI voice recognition expert.

Good news came in October last year, when volunteers told Gouming that his DNA matched that of his biological mother, Wen Xurong.

It turned out that Wen and his biological father, Gao Xianjun, had never stopped searching for the child they know as Gao Yang.

Their story is tragic.

In 1994, Gao senior lost sight of Wen for the first time at a train station. He was then surprised by a gang of thugs while looking for his wife and lost Gao Yang.

A tramp tricked Wen into returning home with him and forced her to have a son with him. The tramp abandoned her after she gave birth.

Wen returned to her hometown in Sichuan, but suffered from mental health problems. She later remarried and had a daughter.

Gao senior traveled all the way from Sichuan to Jiangsu province, 1,700 km away, begging for food and desperately searching for Gao Yang. He died in 2009.

In 2017, Gao Senior’s brother contacted Wen and asked him to register his DNA with the police and publish his son’s information on Baobeihuijia.

According to a volunteer, it was impossible to match the DNA of Gouming and his mother in the database because it required DNA data from both parents to make a match.

They finally managed to match after volunteers carefully went through all the messages, matched their information and sent their blood samples for DNA testing.

By a happy coincidence, the day the volunteers informed Gouming of the success of his 12 years of research was his actual birthday, October 12 according to the Chinese agricultural calendar.

Unfortunately, Gouming’s adoptive mother passed away shortly before the good news reached them. He said his adoptive father was happy for him.

He was reunited with Wen and his half-siblings in Sichuan, southwest China, in February, during the Spring Festival holiday.

Wen, who was suffering from mental illness, seemed fine when she saw Gouming. She kept calling him Yangyang and asking, “Where have you been?”

“I’m here,” Gouming said.

His stepfather would cook all kinds of potato dishes for him after learning that potatoes were a staple food in the Netherlands and Canada.

Gouming visited his father’s grave in Jiangsu and met his aunts and uncles. His uncle gave him the compensation for the demolition of his father’s house, which he had saved for himself for over a decade.

He also wrote a letter thanking his adoptive father for “raising him as a top talent that many aspire to be” and for “letting my brother rest in peace.”

Gouming said he persisted in searching for his biological parents not only for himself, but also because of them: “I knew they were looking for me and waiting for me to come home.”

He said he would return to China every year.

The story moved many people on the Internet.

“He might have thought his parents abandoned him, but they never abandoned him,” one online observer said.

“Despite the unfortunate beginning of his story, he ultimately got lucky because his biological family and his adoptive family are full of love,” said another.