Guo Gangtang never let go of that photo for 24 years.
His son Guo Xinzhen was only 2 years old when he was kidnapped outside his home in China, in September 1997. From that day on, Guo traded his entire life for a motorcycle and a map: he traveled through more than 20 provinces, used several motorcycles until he wore them out, and covered nearly 500,000 kilometers handing out flyers bearing the face of a little boy who grew only in his memory. Along the way, he also helped dozens of families carrying the same wound.
His story traveled so far that it inspired the Chinese film ‘Lost and Love’, starring Andy Lau, who years later would learn the real ending of that story. Because in July 2021, thanks to facial recognition and a DNA test, police identified Guo Xinzhen living in Henan province. Father and son embraced 24 years after that kidnapping, in the city of Liaocheng. Guo Gangtang never stopped walking toward that embrace — it just took him a quarter of a century to get there.
