CRI听力:Half-Chinese Indian Woman Come to China Searching for Half-sister after 8 Decades

An Indian woman and her husband are now in China trying to locate her long-lost half-sister from her father's first marriage.

The elder-sister remained behind in Shanghai during the 1930s.

CRI's Niu Honglin has the story.

62-year-old Jennifer An says it's her father's wish to reunite with Roesai An.

She's the only surviving family member of her father's first marriage, which was broken up by the Japanese invasion of China.

Jennifer's husband Balaji says he and his wife made a promise to one-another when they got married to fulfill his father-in-law's wish.

"His last wish was to see his daughter, to get in touch with his daughter and meet up with his daughter, which he couldn't do. He couldn't fulfill his last wish. So that was also one reason when we got married, I said you see that was your father's last wish. Let me start. I will do it. Someday we will go to China and we will make an effort and see whether we can find the lady."

The father, An Chi Pong, was a Chinese Marine Engineer.

During the war, the ship he was on ran into trouble while on a port-of-call in the then-Indian city of Bombay, now Mumbai.

As it was during the height of the war, An Chi Pong ended up settling in India, eventually moving to the city of Madras, now Chennai, and married a local.

An Chi Pong and his wife eventually had four children, including Jennifer.

But due to the travel restrictions at the time, it was virtually impossible for An Chi Pong and his family to return back to China, though Jennifer says this was always one of her father's desires.

An Chi Pong continued to hold Chinese citizenship until his death in 1982.

Jennifer says the family lived among the Chinese community in Madras, which gave her father an opportunity to make inquiries about his surviving daughter in Shanghai, who if still alive, will be in her 80s.

"He says he is keeping in touch with people who come in asking about her but it was difficult. He was also very busy. He was running a Chinese restaurant in Madras. And Monday is the holiday. On Mondays, he will be organizing all the Chinese people in Madras like burials and marriages because nobody knew English properly. So he was a busy man."

Given that some 8-decades had passed since An Chi Pong left China, clues about Roesai's whereabouts were hard to come by.

But then, An Chi Pong recieved a letter through the Chinese embassy in New Delhi back in the early 1980's, saying that Roesai had been located.

Unfortunately, he died just 3-weeks later without being able to contact his long-lost daughter.

But now, with today's record-keeping, Balaji says he and his wife have high hopes they'll be able to find Roesai.

"Everyone is given an ID card. So I'm sure there must be some ID card because without that the Chinese embassy in Delhi could not have traced her, could not have sent letter to her. I'm not going start from 1944, I'm starting from 1982. And we will make all preparations."

Before travelling to China, Balaji even wrote a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi just ahead of his visit to China, seeking his help to track down his father-in-law's lost daughter.

The couple will leave Beijing for Shanghai on Thursday, and hope to make use of the local police stations, post offices and other connections to try to re-connect with their long-lost relative.

For CRI, I am Niu Honglin.