The reunion between Christian Norris, 17, a high school student in the US and his birth parents took place on Saturday in a crowded Beijing hotel room, seen by many as an unprecedented event.

Since the 1990s, about 75,000 Chinese children have been adopted abroad. Christian is one of the few who have managed to chase down their history. “I’m not sure yet,” Christian answered when asked what he hoped would come of the reunion. “I want to move on.”

Christian’s case is unusual. He is male, whereas most adoptees are girls abandoned because of the Chinese preference for boys and the government’s “one child” policy and unlike most, who are given up as babies, he lived with his family until he was nearly 7.

Christian’s birth parents were medical researchers, better educated than most who give up their children, and it was possible to trace them on the Internet. It also helped that his US mother Julia Norris, who works for an adoption agency, was an investigator who worked for the TV show America’s Most Wanted.

Christian was born in 1991 in Yinchuan to a couple who already had a son. Since his parents could have been penalised for having a second child, he was sent as a newborn to an uncle, who pretended the infant was his own son. When he was ready for school, they sent him back. His father, Jin Gaoke, said he lost his son when they were on a bus and he got off for a few minutes to buy food, returning to discover that the bus gone.

... contd.