Abandoned teen in China goes from a heartwarming reunion to "see you in court"
HEBEI – He went from searching for his biological parents to an emotional reunion that moved netizens in China.
Barely three weeks later, 17-year-old Liu Xuezhou has declared war on his parents with a terse “See you in court" on Wednesday (Jan 19).
He fired the first salvo on Monday, saying that his mother blocked him on messaging platform WeChat. She also called him a “white eye wolf” (a term to describe an ungrateful person), he added.
The following day, Liu’s father, Ding Shuangquan, said in an interview that he did not mind providing for his studies, but claimed that his son had demanded that his parents buy him a house in Hebei.
It was followed by a rebuttal from the young man who said his father was distorting the truth and “has not realised his mistake”.
The family saga unfolded on Dec 6 last year when Liu shared a video online, appealing for information of his parents. In it, he recounted how he was sold to a couple when he was about three months old. They died in an accident when he was four, reported the local media, and relatives of his adoptive parents took care of him.
Liu was about to abandon his initial appeal when his adoptive grandparents found a vaccination record. In another post on Dec 15, he revealed his given name was Ding Jing.
In its mission to crack down on human trafficking, Chinese authorities took an active interest in the case, and in about a week, the Shanxi police identified Ding as his biological father following a DNA test.
After a tearful reunion ceremony between father and son, Liu travelled to Sanya to visit his mother.
Both parents were divorced and have separate families, and he now has three half-brothers and a half-sister.
Liu regularly shared updates of his newfound family love, including photos and screenshots of chat records. In posts on Jan 10 and 11, his photos were captioned: “A happy child today”.
But there was no happy ending.
On his father’s accusation, Liu explained he had left his caregiving relatives when he began his search, for fear of implicating them for human trafficking.
His parents had previously admitted that they sold him for 6,000 renminbi (S$1,270).
Said Liu: “I have no place to live now. The school is closed, so I can't live in the dormitory. I will have an internship next year, and I can't live in the dormitory either.
“All I was asking, is for my parents to rent me a place or find me a home. I didn’t expect them to react so violently.”
He now feels that his parents had met him only because of public pressure.
In a separate interview, his mother told reporters that she blocked her son because she wanted her peaceful life back.
She said: “I felt bad and wanted to make up to him, so we borrowed money just so he could travel to Sanya, and we could meet.”
Liu has since returned to Shijiazhuang to continue his second year in college.
The local government has contacted him to assure him that he would still be supported through subsidies for orphans, he said.
Liu told reporters: “I now want to study hard, finish it and then earn my own money quickly.”
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