After 37-Year Search, Chinese Parents Reunite With Long-Lost Son

The intense pain of losing a child is a deeply affecting experience for parents. The overwhelming grief often includes deep sorrow, emotional numbness, and a sense of profound loss, according to The South China Morning Post. However, the return of a long-lost son after 37 years can be beyond words.

In a recent heartwarming development, a couple in China was reunited with their son after 37 years. The child was given away by his paternal grandmother in 1986, when the boy was just one day old. The grandmother, believing the couple was too poor to raise another child, sent him to a family headed by a man surnamed Zhao.

The parents had not agreed to this decision and were unaware of the grandmother's action. She later explained that she had made the choice on their behalf, thinking it would be too challenging for them to care for another child, given they already had two sons.

It is not clear how much money Zhao paid the grandmother.

According to SCMP, after the grandmother died, Li and his wife spent three decades travelling around, searching for their lost son. In February, the couple's blood samples were found to match that of a man with the surname Pang, living in Zaozhuang, Shandong province, according to the Ministry of Public Security's database.

China's police authority established a large DNA database in 2009 by collecting blood samples from couples whose children went missing and adoptees who wanted to find their biological parents. Police in Shaanxi asked Li, his wife, and Pang to give blood twice before confirming that the couple are the biological parents.

On August 3, with the help of police officers, Pang met his parents in Weinan, where he was born 37 years earlier.

"Son, dad and mom are sorry for you. How has your life been all these years?" the tearful couple said, hugging Pang and holding his hands tightly.

The video of their reunion has prompted an outpouring of emotion in China.

"The grandmother is so cruel. She abandoned her own grandson. It is hard to understand her actions," one online observer wrote on Weibo.

Others took a different view: "The son appears embarrassed at the reunion event. He does not have any feelings for his biological parents, who have not raised him," one said.