A woman who was adopted by a US soldier stationed in Taiwan 47 years ago returned to Taiwan last month to search for her relatives.
Christina Cooper was born in in Tainan Prison in November 1969 and was adopted by a US soldier and his wife in April 1970, who took Cooper to Florida.
Cooper said she has lived most of her life in the US, where she attended school, worked, got married and had children.
Accompanied by her husband and her adoptive mother, Cooper returned to Taiwan on Feb. 16.
A government office in Tainan helped Cooper search for her relatives based on a household registration transcript with the adoption record kept by her adoptive mother.
The office found Cooper’s 11 older siblings within several hours and arranged a meeting in Pingtung the next day.
While in Taiwan, Cooper visited the site of the former Tainan Prison — where a department store and hotels now stand — and the former Tainan District Court.
Tainan is very different than how she remembers it, her mother said.
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