YouTube clip helps woman adopted in Fanling in 1960s find birth mother

A Hawaiian former professional hula dancer adopted from a Fanling orphanage in the 1960s has traced her birth mother through social media after efforts via official channels failed.

Mandy Horst, 50, a retired businesswoman, says she first contacted Hong Kong's Social Welfare Department 10 years ago with information from her adoption records, but the department was not helpful.

"I pretty much gave up," she said.

But Horst rekindled the search for her roots in June, by approaching agencies in the city and messaging people who share her unusual Chinese surname, Tsigg, on Facebook.

Her curiosity was ignited a decade ago when her American mother, Sue Loftis, gave her a box containing her British passport and a social worker's interview with her then 17-year-old mother, Jenny Tsigg.

The box also contained a jacket and metal bracelet engraved with her name that she was wearing when she arrived aged 22 months in California in 1965 from the Fanling Babies Home.