Help Wes Find His Orphanage Friend

· by · in Guest Pieces. ·

by Wes Liu – Chinese adoptee, Subtle Asian Adoptee Traits member

During the 7 years I was in my orphanage in Shanghai, I remember this one boy who was my mentor/big brother. We hung out a lot, and I remember just admiring him a lot. He was also one of the only male figures in my life during my orphanage years.

All throughout the 10 years since being adopted, I never forgot about him. I mourned the loss of such a crucial relationship at such a vulnerable age and time. In 2017 or so, with the help of my mother, I contacted the agency I was adopted through and asked about this boy who is in my photos I received from the orphanage upon my adoption.

After some emails, we found out that he was supposedly adopted during the summer in the same year I was adopted (so, May-August 2010ish. I was adopted on January 18th of 2010), and he moved around the States and that’s all I was able to find out.

He would be an adult now in his early twenties if I remember correctly. Also he would have been adopted from Shanghai. When I was adopted, I would guess he was 9, 10, or 11 years old. Apparently his Chinese name was Chen Yijie. My nickname in China was Biāo Biāo.

If you happen to see this, Chen Yijie, please reach out to me. Your friend, Wes Liu, has been waiting to see you again. If you see this and think you might know Chen Yijie, please let me know.

EDIT:
The younger one is me, obviously.
And yes, I’ll be accepting compliments of my cuteness when I was younger (even though it was traumatic AF).

Contact Wes:
Email: lwcrochet13@gmail.com
Instagram: @iamwesliu
Facebook: Wes Liu

4 responses to “Help Wes Find His Orphanage Friend”

  1. Wes, have you and your mom checked to see if there is a Facebook group for parents of or children adopted from Shanghai? I belong to one for my daughter (Beijing) and I know there are others. If you haven’t already checked it out, it’s worth it. (Actually, I checked and there is at least one called Shanghai Adoptions). If you post in there, you’ll have a good chance of connecting with him.

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    • Hi Annie — thanks for the suggestion. Wes has posted a variation of this message in many adoption groups and has gotten positive responses and support from most. Some parents of adoptees who were older have reached out, but Cheng Yijie hasn’t been discovered yet.

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    • Thanks for looking into this. I think that the guy Wes is looking for would be ~20ish, whereas the person in the LinkedIn is near 30, appears to have been in college from 2007-2011. Wes and his friend were both in the orphanage and adopted in the year 2010.

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