(China News Service, Beijing, January 12) Title: "Cloud-based Letters" Help People Searching for Relatives Across the Taiwan Strait "No Longer Travel Alone"
Author: Li Baijia
On January 4, Liao Xianglin, a young man from Taiwan, posted a message on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu to search for his relatives. He shared photos of letters exchanged between his grandfather, Liao Kemin, and his relatives in mainland China, as well as a handwritten family genealogy with information about their ancestral home.
For decades, cross-strait family reunification has been an arduous journey, with letters often going unanswered and few receiving a reply. Now, with the widespread use of social media platforms and big data technology on the mainland, "cloud-based letters" are helping more people find their loved ones and bringing them joy.
Liao Xianglin was prepared for a long wait, but just two hours later he saw a message: "Teacher Liao Zhenying (deceased) from Liaojiawan School, Liangtian Town, Suxian District, Chenzhou City, has an older brother in Taiwan. I wonder if he is your family member?"
The person who left the message was Shen Dewei, a young man from Chenzhou, Hunan. He read the post seeking relatives and found that the information in it closely matched the situation of his mother's family. He asked his relatives in his hometown to check the family genealogy, and they quickly confirmed the clues.
“He is my distant cousin, from the same clan,” Shen Dewei told a reporter from China News Service. He added that his family’s “unrealistic” wish had been fulfilled in an unbelievable way. Liao Xianglin commented again under the post: “Never met him, yet he feels so familiar… I’m so happy our family is no longer alone.”
According to Shen Dewei, the precise information push of social media platforms gives lost relatives the opportunity to be found and reconnected.
Shen Dewei's great-uncle also traveled to Taiwan years ago, and once returned to his hometown to search for relatives, but unfortunately missed his family. As related relatives passed away or moved away one after another, the two sides completely lost contact. "Can I also find my great-uncle through this post?" The reporter saw that Shen Dewei posted a missing person notice: "After helping Taiwanese compatriots find their relatives, I also want to help my grandmother find her lost relatives..."
The "Cloud Letters" reunite families and inspire future generations to embark on a journey to find their roots. For Wan Hsiang-ting, a young Taiwanese woman, finding her relatives is a "spiritual homecoming."
“When I was young, I read through the letters between my father and aunt, and I also heard about my aunt’s visits to Taiwan.” Wan Hsiang-ting thus developed a longing for her hometown, which she had never set foot in. But as time went by, relatives and friends on both sides of the strait gradually lost contact.
In 2024, Wan Xiangting moved to Wuhan, and in April of the following year, she decided to search for her relatives through social media. In her Douyin videos, she imitated the Jiangsu dialect that her grandmother often spoke, and attached letters that recorded the addresses of relatives and friends.
In December 2025, after many years apart, a group of relatives from the mainland visited Wan Xiangting (first from the left) in Wuhan, finally reuniting the family members from both sides of the Taiwan Strait. (Photo provided by the interviewee)“My grandmother always missed her family on the mainland, and my father always said that life wouldn’t be complete until he found his relatives in Jiangsu.” Wan Xiangting longed for a miracle, but she was also afraid that her wish would be dashed. Less than 24 hours after the video was posted, she received a reply. The person not only accurately recited the contents of the letters from back then, but also posted the mailing address.
"Social media platforms have reconnected broken family ties," Wan Xiangting said. Adding each other on WeChat, exchanging photos, and creating family groups... family ties that had been dormant for 36 years were rekindled.
The "Cloud Letters" have allowed separated relatives to reunite and also made up for the regrets of veterans in Taiwan whose hearts were still tied to their homeland. "Before they died, they would look into the distance every day and say, 'Home is just across the strait.'" After marrying and moving to Taiwan in 2020, He Na, a young woman from Nanchong, Sichuan, took on the mission of finding relatives across the strait.
In October 2025, He Na, a young woman from Nanchong, Sichuan, searched for the graves of Shandong veterans in the cemetery located in Alishan, Taiwan. (Photo provided by the interviewee)Li Baisui, a veteran whose ancestral home was Suzhou, Anhui, passed away relatively early. His son, Li Shiquan, who remained on the mainland, suffers from Alzheimer's disease and repeatedly calls out his father's name in moments of delirium. Li Shiquan's daughter contacted He Na through social media.
After comparing information and running around everywhere, He Na finally found Li Baisui's remains and assisted in completing the procedures to send them back to Anhui. In September 2025, 81-year-old Li Shiquan knelt down tremblingly to welcome his father home, and the belated reunion brought tears to everyone's eyes.
He Na told reporters that Taiwan's information registration system was inadequate in the past, and many veterans did not even have identification. "Cloud Letters" provides support to families who are willing but lack the means, and also allows more stories of searching for relatives to be seen.
Today, the authentic local accents in the videos and the black-and-white photos continue to be posted on various platforms, attracting views and shares from netizens. Good news keeps pouring in, and the kinship ties across the strait are being reconnected time and again "in the cloud." (End)
