appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

liveArticle

appConfig

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sectionsV2

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

json

Zoey Zhang

Using only a childhood photograph, a woman in central China found her younger brother who had been lured away with a piece of bread more than three decades ago.
Li Lin, 44, from Xiantao in Hubei province, was separated from her brother, Li Xin, in childhood after tragedy tore their family apart, Daxiang News reported.
Their mother died of cancer, while their father reportedly suffered a mental collapse, left home and never returned.

Orphaned at the ages of 11 and seven, the siblings survived by scavenging for scraps.
One day, while sheltering from the rain in the back of a truck, they fell asleep and were unwittingly carried to another city.
Lost and hungry, they wandered the streets until an elderly woman approached and offered to buy Xin some bread.
Believing she had found help, Lin let her brother go with the woman. But he never returned.
“My brother was taken while he was in my care. I have lived with that guilt all my life,” Lin told the media.

The younger brother said he tried to escape to look for his sister but was caught, beaten, starved and locked in a dark room.
He later managed to flee, surviving by begging on buses, and eventually ended up in Guangdong province, southern China, where a family adopted him and gave him the surname Han.
“Deep down, I always knew I had an older sister and I never gave up looking for her,” he said.

Meanwhile, Li Lin spent the next 33 years drifting from place to place and taking odd jobs to finance her search for her brother.
She hauled bricks on building sites, washed dishes in restaurants and worked in factories, never abandoning hope.
With no access to her parents’ DNA, she had little to go on beyond a single old photograph of her brother.
Over the years, Li Lin travelled across much of China, handed out tens of thousands of missing-person notices and spent nearly one million yuan (US$145,000) on the search.

A breakthrough came this year when a police officer in Jiangxi province, central China, used facial recognition to identify a man surnamed Han living in Guangdong.
With police help, DNA testing confirmed he was her younger brother.
The siblings were reunited on March 23 at a police station in Jiangxi, where they broke down in each other’s arms.

Lin brought bags of bread for her brother, telling him she had searched for him for 33 years because she lost him over a single loaf.
Fighting back tears, Xin told her not to blame herself, saying he had never held it against her.
The following day, Lin took him back to their hometown in Xiantao, Hubei province, central China, where she had prepared a homecoming with a red carpet, firecrackers, a birthday cake and tangyuan, a glutinous rice ball traditionally associated with reunion.
She also took him to their mother’s grave and said she had finally brought her son home.
Xin said the greatest blessing of his life was having a sister who never gave up on him, adding that the reunion had finally eased the grief he had carried for decades.

In interviews with the mainland media, Lin said her next hope is to find their father, urge him to come home and tell him he was forgiven whatever drove him to leave.
The siblings’ story has stirred widespread emotion on mainland social media.
One online observer said: “Li Lin is the greatest sister in the world. She lived with that guilt for 33 years, though she was only a child when it happened.”
While another said: “The only ones to blame are the human traffickers.”


Chinese create ‘wealthy’ online personas with ‘luxury’ photos but warned of legal risks

China AI robot restaurant analyses diners’ faces, tongues to recommend health-focused dishes

Love and compassion in China: Moroccan student saves drowning woman, long-ago pen pals reunite

Japan-based China nurse criticised for posting work clips, raising privacy, ethics concerns

Trending in China

China woman uses an old photo to find brother who was lured away with bread 33 years ago

After their mother died and their father disappeared, a Chinese woman and her brother survived by scavenging until the boy was lured away with bread; the siblings reunited recently after 33 years. Photo: QQ.com

Li Lin offers her brother Li Xin some bread at their emotional reunion. Photo: mp.weixin.qq.com

An early picture of the siblings’ family before tragedy tore them apart. Photo: mp.weixin.qq.com

Li Lin and her brother found it impossible to contain their emotions when they were reunited. Photo: hntv.tv

Li Lin and her long-lost brother at the reunion event which included firecrackers and birthday cake. Photo: mp.weixin.qq.com

Li Lin lies down next to the only photograph she had of her brother. She spent three decades looking for him. Photo: mp.weixin.qq.com

Li Lin, above, breaks down, emotionally broken by the stress of the search for her brother. Photo: mp.weixin.qq.com

China yam with human ‘fingernails’, 260 free meals, lottery win after lifetime of playing

In Guangdong, a man found a yam resembling a human hand with “fingernails”, a customer at a BYD dealership gained attention for enjoying 260 free meals over a year, and after a lifetime of playing, a Chinese man won 10 million yuan in the lottery. Photo: SCMP composite/QQ.com/Douyin/Sohu

Uncanny: The man holds up the oddly shaped vegetable he unearthed on his farm. Photo: weixin

The police were called after the man, who availed himself of a huge amount of free gifts from the car showroom, parked his car in the shop’s car park and refused to move it. Photo: weixin

A man walks past a lottery shop in China. The lucky jackpot winner is now set for retirement. Photo: Getty Images

‘Be careful or I’ll kill your family’: China mini-dramas featuring kids raise concerns

Chinese mini-dramas featuring children have caused concern due to their mature themes and content; one mother was alarmed by her son’s use of adult language after acting in such a show. Photo: SCMP composite/RedNote/iqiyi

One of the controversial series depicts intimate relations between a child actor and an adult. Photo: ettoday

Child actors, such as the girl above, are often cast in adult roles. Photo: ettoday

Another child actor, above. Experts fear the “adultification” trend could be psychologically harmful to children. Photo: ettoday

Two child actors in a miniseries were asked to play out a scene perched high on a roof. Photo: ettoday

A crew film a miniseries scene with a child actor lying in bed, above. Photo: Reuters

China coach goes above and beyond, trains clients at own cost of US$28,000 after gym shuts

When a gym in China closed suddenly, a coach continued training his clients at a cost of over US$28,000, emphasising trust over financial loss, even selling his car. Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock/jiupainews

When the gym closed in October 2024, Zhang was training 29 clients with 877 affected classes. Photo: Baidu

Despite financial challenges, Zhang took responsibility for his clients’ training without defaulting on them. Photo: Baidu

A gym features an interior with weight machines and wooden flooring focused on strength training. Photo: Shutterstock

Heartwarming tale of 7 dogs’ escape from captivity in China garners 230 million views

In a touching story, seven dogs from the same village in China escaped after being stolen by a dog meat shop and trekked 17km home. Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock/Douyin

They resemble a group of little brothers in distress, moving together in unison—entirely unlike stray dogs. Photo: mp.weixin.qq.com

The dogs’ incredible journey home has captured widespread attention online, with videos amassing over 230 million views. Photo: mp.weixin.qq.com

A man strolls with his pet dog as he converses with a vendor selling dog meat at a market during the local dog meat festival in Yulin, Guangxi Autonomous Region, China, on June 21, 2018. Photo: Reuters/Tyrone Siu

On March 19, a volunteer at a dog shelter reported to Jimu News that all seven dogs had returned to their respective owners, who came from three different households. Photo: mp.weixin.qq.com

Japan food company rebrands ‘boring’ tofu, making it ‘manly’ to appeal to young customers

A Japanese food company earns US$38 million annually by rebranding tofu as a masculine food item, calling it “manly tofu” to appeal to young consumers. Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock/Sina

Tofu production in Japan has been refined over centuries through traditional methods that blend craftsmanship, pure water, and high-quality domestic soybeans. Photo: Japan Tofu Association

Shingo Ito, above, an accountant turned entrepreneur, took the helm of his father’s tofu business with the vision of transforming it into an iconic product that transcends borders, now exporting successfully to the US. Photo: meiji.ac.jp

Tofu with a twist: the manly revolution of Otokomae Tofu has captured the taste buds of young consumers in Japan. Photo: Handout

Branding his products as “Otokomae Tofu,” which translates to “manly tofu,” Ito boldly features the character “man” on the packaging, reinforcing the brand’s identity. Photo: Handout

Tofu, originally introduced to Japan from China during the Tang dynasty (618–907), has a rich historical lineage and is now a staple in numerous Chinese and Japanese dishes. Photo: Shutterstock

News

People & Culture

Tears flow as 3-decade search finally locates long-lost sibling who was starved, beaten and abused by human traffickers before being adopted


Tears flow as 3-decade search finally locates long-lost sibling who was starved, beaten and abused by human traffickers before being adopted.


Human trafficking

Li Xi

China woman uses an old photo to find brother who was lured away with bread 33 years ago

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Tears flow as 3-decade search finally locates long-lost sibling who was starved, beaten and abused by human traffickers before being adopted

Tears flow as 3-decade search finally locates long-lost sibling who was starved, beaten and abused by human traffickers before being adopted