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Families in China
China

Chinese-American woman reunites with birth family after going missing 13 years ago

Kylee Bowers was just five when she strayed onto unfamiliar streets in southern China. DNA and the internet helped her find her way back

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Chinese-American Kylee Bowers (right) is reunited with her biological family in Guangzhou on Sunday. Photo: Weibo
Zhuang Pinghuiin Beijing

A young Chinese-American woman has been reunited with her birth family after more than a decade thanks to DNA and internet technology.

Kylee Bowers, or Liang Jinglang as she was known until she went missing at age five, was welcomed by her parents and three siblings in a tearful reunion at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport on Sunday, Nanfang Daily reported on Monday.

“I am so happy to finally be able to see my birth parents and my brother and sisters face to face today,” Bowers was quoted as saying. “I feel so lucky to be able to find them. Everybody has been so nice to me.”

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Chinese-American woman Kylee Bowers and her family celebrate their reunion after 13 years apart. Photo: Weibo
Chinese-American woman Kylee Bowers and her family celebrate their reunion after 13 years apart. Photo: Weibo

Bowers became separated from her family in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, in 2005 when she tried to find her way home from her uncle’s house. The family lived in Foshan and had left the child temporarily in the uncle’s care, the report said.

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Bowers said an elderly woman found her standing alone on a bridge and took her to the police but she could not understand the officers because she only spoke the dialect of her family’s hometown of Leizhou, also in Guangdong province.

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