Nanchang Project

20/08/2026

One last reminder for our Jiangxi adoptees! ❤️
Applications for our 2027 Jiangxi Search Trip Ambassador Program are due this Sunday, August 23.🇨🇳

If you're a Jiangxi adoptee age 18+ and you've been thinking about applying, now is the time! Three ambassadors will be selected to join us for two weeks in Jiangxi, with a professional birth family search, hometown visit, cultural experiences, and support from our team throughout the trip.

Going back to your hometown is something many adoptees dream about, and we are so honored to have the opportunity to help make that possible for three adoptees next year. ❤️

If you've been considering applying, don't wait! We'd love to have you join us.

To learn more & apply visit nanchangproject.com/jiangxi

19/08/2026

We are looking for a Chinese adoptee who matched her birth sister in 23andMe. We have sent a message to the profile with the initials “JW,” but have not heard back yet and it shows she has not signed in to 23andMe for quite a while. The adoptee should be born around January 1997 and adopted from or around Jiangyin, Jiangsu. Please help us find her! Do you recognize this information?

This sweet birth family was referred to us by an adoptee we matched last year. That adoptee’s birth family is neighbors with this birth family! ❤️

18/08/2026

Have you ever felt that if you stare at yourself long enough in the mirror, you might evenually recognize the face of a lost family member in your reflection? On a first trip back to China, an adoptee searches for familial resemblance in the faces around them. 🪞 Read their short reflection at nanchangproject.com/blog.

Jennalin was a member of the NCPT 2025/26 Guangxi Trip Team, where they served as a Trip Ambassador.

17/08/2026

Congratulations to two Hunan adoptees who have reconnected with their birth families in Yiyang, Hunan! These are separate birth families. The adoptees were born in 1990 and 1992. Their birth families (along with other Yiyang families) were found and tested by our Hunan-based Search Partner Wendy while she was conducting a search for another adoptee. We wish everyone well as they navigate this new time of reunion! ❤️

12/08/2026

As an adoptee-led organization, we care deeply about adoptee safety, privacy, and the power dynamics involved when adoptees entrust someone with their DNA, personal information, and birth family searches.

A fellow Chinese adoptee, Lily Mercedes of Shared Segments China, has publicly raised serious concerns regarding her documented experience with Brian H. Stuy, founder of DNAConnect.Org, founder/owner of Research-China Org, and heavily featured in the film One Child Nation.

After carefully reviewing the information presented, we are sharing Lily’s video and the documentation she has provided because we believe adoptees have a right to be aware of concerns raised about individuals and organizations involved in adoptee and birth family searches—work that involves deeply personal information and that our community should be able to approach with an expectation of professionalism, transparency, and respect.

Lily’s account includes concerns about sexually inappropriate comments and describes a nearly 37-year age difference between herself and Brian Stuy, a married man with three daughters adopted from China close in age to Lily.

We encourage members of the adoptee and birth search communities, as well as adoptive families, to watch Lily’s full video and review the supporting documentation carefully before making decisions about whom they trust with their DNA, personal information, and birth family searches.

Supporting documentation: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DHkmIFGCAsunI34ae7iUHxQPHLfxVBKW

11/08/2026

Congratulations to this adoptee from Jiujiang, Jiangxi! She added her DNA to the National Reunion/Police Database in April through NCPT’s adoptee-led assistance program. In August, her assigned police officer notified us of a match! The adoptee’s birth parents registered their DNA in the database this year too. It was also discovered that her birth family is from Huangmei, Hubei, just across the river from Jiujiang! Adoptee and birth family already had their online reunion call and are continuing to get to know each other. We wish them all the best in their reunion! 🎊

To register with the National Reunion Database, visit us at ✨ nanchangproject.com/national-database ✨

07/08/2026

Run OR walk! 🏃🏻‍♀️ Join us in preparing for the season of togetherness and reunion as we launch our second annual Mid-Autumn Festival Virtual 5K Run for Reunion!

🎑 Mid-Autumn Festival is the perfect opportunity to connect with your friends, family, and Chinese culture in a walk/run of mindfulness and appreciation for the relationships we have. Your participation helps us raise funds to reunite Chinese adoptees with the relatives they left behind when being adopted from China. This 5K supports DNA tests for birth families and our upcoming search trip to Jiangxi province.

🥮 WHERE: Your location anywhere or one of our listed host cities (LA, San Diego, Denver, D.C., Celebration, Chicago, Boston, Ypsilanti, NYC, Cleveland, Nashville, SLC, Richmond, Madison, Toronto). Host cities will have an optional social hour following the 5K.
🥮 WHEN: Any time between October 1st and 15th (or specific date for 5K meetups)
🥮 HOW: Register online, complete your 5K, and optionally share your photos with us to be entered in a prize raffle!

Participation in this event is open to everyone—runners, non-runners, adoptees, non-adoptees, friends, family, allies, dogs, cats, etc.—anywhere in the world. We encourage you to spread the word, gather your friends, and enjoy the outdoors while supporting family reunion.

✏️ View more details and register now! nanchangproject.com/run-for-reunion

06/08/2026

Earlier this year, an adoptee named Lauren submitted her blood sample to 23mofang. When the results came in, she discovered she had a cousin match with whom she shares 110 cM of DNA. This cousin was very kind and eager to help, having asked around among his extended relatives until identifying the potential birth family for Lauren.

The birth parents were looking for two daughters. They submitted their DNA to Nanchang Project and to the National Reunion/Police Database. The match was confirmed! Now the family is just looking for their other daughter who was born in the second half of 1993 (Jiangxi province). Their DNA will be added to 23andMe, AncestryDNA, and GEDmatch.

Even more amazing is that Lauren had previously found a second cousin on 23andMe, another Chinese adoptee who is from the same area. Lauren enlisted her birth mother to ask around and now a potential birth family has been located for the her cousin! Nanchang Project is working with them to get tested and will hopefully bring good news to everyone soon.

Submitting a DNA sample to 23mofang is about to lead to at least two reunions for the same birth family. Adoptees interested in using this tool may check out the 23mofang guide on our website:

✨ nanchangproject.com/resources ✨

05/08/2026

“On the outside looking in” is a phrase that describes many adoptees’ experiences of the barriers they’ve felt between identity, family, and culture. 🪟📷 Watching through a window, an adoptee photographer turns a literal lens on her own family and several other adoptive families—both a brave confrontation and vulnerable surrender.

View the photos and read about the experience at nanchangproject.com/blog/somewhere-in-between

By LiYe Whalen (she/her) Adoptee, 23 From Yihuan, Jiangxi; Living in Fort Thomas, Kentucky Instagram: .photography I was adopted from China when I was eighteen months old and raised in a single-parent household with my mom and her son in a predominantly white community. G

04/08/2026

Free presentation by our volunteer Katie Lauder about how to begin a birth family search! This virtual event will be held on Tuesday, August 18, at 7 pm Central / 8 pm Eastern. Open to Chinese adoptees!

✏️ Sign up: https://forms.gle/6Rt3SQivWYmvmYzGA

Thank you, Chinese Adoptees of the Midwest, for inviting and hosting us!

Please give a warm welcome to our next Expanding Narratives speaker Katie Lauder with Nanchang Project!

Katie is a fellow Chinese adoptee who has been engaged with the adoptee community since 2019. In 2023, she joined the Nanchang Project team, where she advocates for issues affecting Chinese adoptees at the intersection of international relations, cultural education, and the development of adoptee voices within the Asian American community. Outside of her advocacy work, she enjoys spending time with friends and pets.

Nanchang Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Chinese adoptees around the world search for and reconnect with their birth families through educational resources, community support, and hands-on guidance.

In this lecture, NCPT volunteer Katie will walk attendees through the fundamentals of starting a birth family search, from understanding available resources to taking the first concrete steps. No prior experience or knowledge is required.

📍 Zoom Link to be emailed the day before
⏰ Tuesday August 18th 2026, 7:00 PM CDT
✅ Must be a Chinese Adoptee
💲 Free, but donations to Nanchang Project are highly encouraged

Sign up with the link below and we hope to see you all there!
https://forms.gle/6Rt3SQivWYmvmYzGA