Some have might have read the story of the father who, through the chinese version of twitter, found his son. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12497704) His 3yo son had been kidnapped by a man who wanted a son. For three years, the father searched for him, mostly through the internet. The authorities even asked him not to make so much fuss. But the father was also helped by a famous china-twitter journalist called Deng Fai. The story has a happy ending since miraculously the boy was founded and father and son reunited.
Well, Chinese government and prime minister Wen have picked up on this success and have started a campaign to "help child beggar" (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-02/28/content_12084994.htm) . People who suspects "somebody to find any suspect who abuses, organizes, forces or exploits juveniles to beg on the streets or possible cases of child abduction" can call a hotline, and web database for missing children.
Abduction of children by child trafficker is a huge problem in China. Children are being kidnapped to beg, be a son to a son-less family, become sex workers..
In 2007, the UK newspaper, The gardian was talking to up to 190 childs being kidnapped a day (http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2007/sep/23/features.magazine77) and the government not being willing to adress the situation.
One has to wait what will happen when the excitement of the father and son reunited will go down.
This blog is meant to be a space for the Austin College community to discuss issues related to China and the Chinese language. For author permissions, please write to Dr. Jennifer Thackston Johnson: jtj.at.ac –at- gmail.com. Austin College is a leading national independent liberal arts college located north of Dallas in Sherman, Texas.
I find it rather interesting that the Chinese government picked up the very cause they were trying to quash down. It makes one wonder about the motivations behind the campaign. Is it that the Chinese government has finally realized that with the internet at the level it is, and the world as connected as it has become, that finding lost children is not as hopeless of a task as it once was? Are they just now realizing how widespread child stealing truly is? Or is there a less romantic, ulterior motive behind the government's campaign? Whatever it is, hopefully their campaign will help the Chinese families who have lost children and the children themselves in the horrid conditions they were forced into.
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