“Where Do I Come From?” — A Dutch Girl’s Cross-Border Search for Her Roots

“Lately, I’ve found myself asking more questions about my past — about where I come from.”

These were the words of Isabel Maas (Chinese name: Jiang Yixiu), a 27-year-old woman from the Netherlands, during an online interview with local journalists in Yixing, Jiangsu.

Born in 1998, Isabel was found in front of the Yixing People’s Hospital in 1999 and later placed in the Yixing Social Welfare Centre. A year later, she was adopted by her Dutch parents and brought to the Netherlands. Today, she lives in the city of Tilburg, in a loving family with six adopted children from around the world — including China, Brazil, Haiti, and Sri Lanka.

From an early age, Isabel’s adoptive parents were open and honest about her story, helping her explore her Chinese heritage through books, films, and museum visits. As she grew older, her curiosity deepened: she longed to understand her roots, to know what had happened in the first years of her life, and to reconnect with her birth family in China.

Last summer, she began reaching out to Chinese organisations that help adoptees trace their families, submitting her DNA for matching and leaving a public appeal on the “Ping’an Yixing” WeChat account. The city’s media centre and local police soon took action to assist her search.

To everyone’s surprise, the former director of the Yixing Social Welfare Centre, Ms. Lu Huazhen, still remembered her clearly:

“‘Jiang’ and ‘Yi’ stand for Jiangsu Yixing, and ‘Xiu’ was chosen because she looked so delicate and lovely.”

When Isabel learned the story behind her Chinese name, she was moved to tears.

“Even if I never meet them again, I’ll always keep a special place in my heart for my birth parents. If one day I can reconnect with them, it would mean the world to me.”

Isabel now plans to return to Yixing next spring to visit the place where her life began.

💞 The Mothers’ Bridge of Love (MBL) invites readers to join this “search relay.”
If you have any information that could help Isabel find her birth parents, please contact us by filling out the “Get in touch” form on our home page or call +86 189 6180 8348.

You can also leave a comment below the video here. 

Together, let’s help love find its way home.