A 12-year search has finally led PhD graduate Gouming Martens to his birth parents. He was adopted at the age of four from a Chinese orphanage by a Dutch couple. Many on the internet have been moved by his journey to seek his origins.
According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Gouming Martens got lost while travelling with his parents from their home in eastern China’s Jiangsu province to his mother’s hometown in southwestern Sichuan province when he was only three years old in 1994. He was adopted by Jozef and Maria Martens, a Dutch couple, in 1996 after being sent to an orphanage by a few kind-hearted individuals.
The orphanage gave him the name Gouming, which the Dutch couple decided to keep. His adoptive parents encouraged him to find his real parents, and the family returned to China in 2007 to explore for clues, but the orphanage was no longer there. However, Gouming Martens kept looking. He spent five years relearning Mandarin and working part-time to finance three trips to China during his university years.
Gouming Martens registered with the volunteer organisation Baobeihuijia (Baby Come Home) in 2012, which helps people locate missing families. With the assistance of volunteers, he located his biological parents.
Last year, Gouming Martens got some good news: volunteers informed him that his DNA matched that of his birth mother, Wen Xurong. According to SCMP, his birth parents never gave up seeking the child they called Gao Yang. Also, their narrative, nevertheless, was heartbreaking.
According to the South China Morning Post, Gouming Martens’ birth father lost sight of his wife, Wen Xurong, while at a railway station. He then got into an altercation with a group of hooligans while looking for his wife and lost Gao Yang.
Wen was duped into going home with a vagabond, who forced her to have a son. After giving birth, the tramp abandoned her. Wen Xurong returned to her hometown, but she was dealing with mental health issues. She remarried and gave birth to a daughter.
According to the media outlet, Gao senior walked from Sichuan to Jiangsu province, 1,700 kilometres away, begging for food and frantically looking for Gao Yang. He died in the year 2009. Then, in 2017, Gao senior’s brother approached Wen Xurong and requested she register her DNA with the authorities and post her son’s details on Baobeihuijia.
A DNA test later revealed this happy coincidence. On the Chinese agricultural calendar, Gouming Martens’ actual birthday was October 12, the day volunteers informed him of the success of his 12-year hunt. However, Gouming Martens’ adoptive mother passed away before the happy news reached them. He stated that his adoptive father was thrilled for him.
During the Spring Festival holiday in February, Gouming Martens reconnected with Wen Xurong and his half-siblings in Sichuan, southwest China.
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