Dutch-adopted man revisits China family, tells adoptive father ‘You’ll always be my dad’
Birth father searched for him and his mother for two years in vain, living in sorrow and ill health until his death in 2009
Eight months after the poignant reunion of a PhD graduate with his long-lost Chinese birth family – following his adoption to the Netherlands three decades ago – he brought his Dutch father to China to visit his birth mother, envisioning a future filled with love and care from both families.
In early October, Gouming Martens, originally named Gao Yang, revisited his birth mother Wen Xurong’s home in Miyi county in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, accompanied by his adoptive father, Jozef Martens.
They received a warm welcome from Wen and her husband, whom she married in 2010 and with whom she has a teenage daughter.
Wen’s husband prepared local dishes for their guests, while Wen served food to her son and his adoptive father, a traditional gesture of hospitality in Chinese culture.
Recalling the heart-wrenching story of losing Gao in 1994 during an interview with media outlet ifeng.com, Wen tearfully stated: “My destiny was beyond my control.”
Wen, Gao Yang, and his father Gao Xianjun had travelled from eastern China’s Jiangsu province to Sichuan to visit her ailing mother. During the process of buying train tickets, she lost sight of her husband and son.
She shared that she searched for them at the railway station for three days before being sent to her hometown by railway staff.
