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Huang Mingzhen goes home once every three weeks, only to see the sullen, expressionless face of his 13-year-old son.
"He's been like this since he was brought home in 2009," said Huang, 42. "He rarely talks to me."
His son, Huang Bo, went missing near their home in Du'an County in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in July 2005. The couple searched every corner of the county in the following four years, but to no avail.
Toward the end of 2009, police told them the boy had been sold to the eastern province of Fujian, but that he would be returned home.
The reunion, however, did not turn out to be a "happily-ever-after" tale, as the preteen, who now speaks standard Mandarin instead of the native Guangxi dialect he spoke as a preschooler, often sits alone in total silence, shedding tears and missing his "family" from Fujian.
The couple who had purchased Huang from child traffickers treated him well, and he had forgotten about his biological parents during the four years he spent in Fujian.
After he was returned to Guangxi, Huang insisted that he would keep in touch with the couple who bought him in Fujian. "I said no, and he burst into tears," said his mother Su Qingfeng.
Eventually, Su and her husband had to give in. The "father" from Fujian came to visit them once. Huang Bo appeared to love him more than his biological parents, and cried desperately when the man had to leave.
"He's been home for more than three years, but it's still difficult to approach him," she said. "His teacher said he could not concentrate in class. His mind is apparently on something else."
The mother said she feels like she can never make up for the lost time.
The separation, meanwhile, created a fault line in Huang's childhood. He feels lonely in his new environment. He has no friends and is reluctant to meet new people.
Like Huang Bo, it's not always a happy ending when abducted children are returned home.
** The familiar stranger**
"Go to bed on time, whether we're home or not."
"Do not stay out late, or you'll face the consequences."
"Just behave yourself."
Handwritten notes like these are posted on walls and furniture in the shabby one-bedroom apartment Li Yilong shares with his parents in Guangxi's Nandan County.
This is the only mode of communication between the parents and their child.
Like Huang Bo, Li Yilong was abducted and sold to Fujian in 2006, when he was only four years old.
The vivacious preschooler became taciturn after police took him home in the summer of 2010. "I know for sure he's my son, but he's more like a stranger," said his father Li Minghuan. "He often cries and refuses to do what we tell him to do."
His parents don't scold him when he breaks the rules, fearing he would leave if they did.
The couple carefully blocks out any information about his foster parents. "We hope he'll soon become an integral part of our family and recognize us as his only parents," said the elder Li.
But he is not certain when this familiar stranger will open up to him, or even call him "dad."
While it is hard for children like Huang Bo and Li Yilong to shake off the nightmare of being abducted, being forcibly separated from their new families -- mostly childless couples who cherish these children as their own -- turns out to be a painful experience.
The Ministry of Public Security launched a special campaign in April 2009 to bring abducted children home. By the end of last year, police authorities had busted on 11,000 child trafficking rings and returned 54,000 abducted children to their homes.
With Children's Day just around the corner, the well-being of these returned children has garnered widespread attention.
Experts say psychological counseling is essential for these children in confronting their experience and adjusting to life at home and in school.
"The situation is more worrying among older children who have become affectionate with their foster parents," said Ye Weiwei, who works for China Charities Aid Foundation for Children.
"Their psychological problems are often neglected when all of society celebrates their family reunions, as if this were the end of their tragedies."
Seeking aid
According to a survey by Baobeihuijia.com, China's largest non-governmental website dedicated to bringing abducted children home, 90 percent of young victims were kidnapped as a result of the negligence of their caretakers, and 50 percent of abducted children came from rural families in which at least one parent was working in a faraway city.
"Most children were abducted between the ages of 3 and 6 and brought home at 8, 10 or even older," said Zhou Jian, a counselor with the psychological society of Guangxi.
"They had very faint memories of their biological parents, and when they were brought back, they had reached an age of juvenile defiance. Their crises would be worse if they were forced to adapt to a totally new environment where living conditions were worse than what their foster parents could offer."
Under such circumstances, it is extremely important for their parents to enhance their family cohesion and restore a sense of intimacy with the children, "preferably with the help of professional psychologists".
However, many of these families are stuck in remote mountain regions and can neither access, nor afford, the much-needed counseling services.
"Some non-governmental organizations have launched aid programs to help these families, but government coordination is essential for visiting all abducted children and resolving their psychological handicaps," said Meng Zhan, an official in charge of the protection of minors in Guangxi's Hechi City.
Meanwhile, it is crucial for parents to offer their returned children a sense of security, said Prof. Zhou Xiaozheng of Renmin University of China in Beijing.
"After their children's return, parents tend to be overly sensitive and issue strict rules, fearing their children might be abducted again," said Zhou. "But parents need to be more rational by helping children to be sociable and independent."
The children will only feel safer if they are living happily in a loving environment, he said.
