Taiwan: Man Meets Mother

“A 28-year-old Taiwanese man who had never known he was an adopted child until he was 20 years old finally reunited with his biological mother on Jan. 28, Central News Agency reported on Jan. 31.

Liu Shi-zhong (劉士忠), who is in the food service industry, found out that he was an adopted child when he went to a household registry office to apply for a copy of his family’s household registration transcript for a matter related to military service, according to CNA.

After learning the secret that had been purposely kept from his knowledge for so long, Liu began to ask himself, “Was it my own fault, or did my parents hate me? If not, why did they abandon me by putting me in an orphanage?”

But Liu had kept his suspicions to himself all these years, because his adoptive parents had treated him as their biological son, and he was afraid of hurting them if he asked them any questions about the matter, CNA reported.

Liu’s concern was finally dispelled when his adoptive father was dying and revealed to him sketchy information about his biological mother and encouraged him to look for her, according to CNA.

“After my adoptive mother died four years ago, and my adoptive father passed away two years ago, I was alone. The other day, I joined an inspirational learning program, and after receiving encouragement from my coach and partners, I decided to throw away fear and doubt and began looking for my mother,” Liu was quoted by the news outlet as saying.

Liu said that he sought help from a household registration office and began to get things into shape when he received a copy of the household registration transcript from when he was born, CNA said. Based on the information on the transcript, he knew that his mother could be living in Shuangxi District, New Taipei City. Therefore, he decided to go to the Shuangxi Household Registration Office to try his luck.

The clerk handling Liu’s case, Lin Fang-yu (林芳瑜), began to look into the database, hoping to help the mother and son get reunited before the Lunar New Year.

Lin told Liu that his mother, surnamed Lien (連), had moved out of town and did not leave a telephone number in the record. However, the clerk was able to get in touch with Liu’s mother through Lien’s brother, the outlet said. Coincidentally, Lien happened to be in Shuangxi visiting her relatives on the same day, Jan. 28. Therefore, the mother and son met at the household registration office.

Lien emotionally stated that she has three children, and Liu is the third. She added that they were in a bit of a tight spot at that moment, and her husband wanted to put the smallest child up for adoption, although she thought her husband was just joking.

To her dismay, she found that her husband was serious, and he forced her to look for someone to adopt the child, CNA reported. With help from friends, they found the Liu family willing to do so. Seeing that the couple really liked her son, Lien agreed on the adoption, according to CNA.

The mother and son hadn’t met for 28 years, yet they didn’t feel strange to each other when they finally met. Seeing that Liu was happily calling his mother, the clerk took out the red envelop, which originally Liu asked her to give to his mother, and gave it to Liu so that he could give it to his mother himself.

Liu said to his mother, “Mom, for the past 20 plus years, I was not beside you to fulfill my filial obligation. Now that the Lunar New Year is just around the corner, this is a little gift for you, and Happy Lunar New Year.” Both the mother and son burst out crying, and all the people in the household registration office kept wiping tears from their cheeks.

As the two were leaving, Lien kept turning her head back towards Lin and said, “I found my son, so great, my son.””

Taiwanese adopted child reunites with biological mother after 28 years

[Taiwan News 1/31/19 by George Liao]

 

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