My grandfather Gordon Hutchings was a young British soldier who fought in the Korean War around 1952 and was stationed in Hong Kong around the time of his service. After he died in 1981, his wife, my British grandmother, found some pictures in his possession of him stood next to a Hong Konger lady named Shingping Lai (黎倩蘋) who was holding their supposed baby (links to pictures at the end of post). Since this was kept a secret, we have had no contact whatsoever with this relative of ours, although we would very much like to.
Unfortunately, we are completely clueless as to how to begin the search. We are hoping that putting our story up here, we could possibly have some advice and recommendations for how to go about this difficult task. Our only possible pathway to finding this sibling is the postal address on the back of the letter from my grandfather's lover (written July 28th, 1956):
Shingping Lai
℅ Dr C. L. Siow
P.O Box 1784
5 Merlin Street (ground floor)
Hong Kong
Do any of you have recommendations for how to find this relative? How about DNA websites that Hong Kongers use for health/ancestral lineage/family finding? Are there forums for Chinese-born military children? Are there any investigators we could hire? Is there anything we can glean from Shingping Lai's name? For example her ethnic background? The region she may have been from? We have a portrait photograph of her, as well as the envelope she sent the pictures in that includes a love note written in Cantonese - We have already translated this lovely farewell note.
I apologise in advance if this forum is not meant for this kind of post, it's just we really are unsure how to further trek this path.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post by a curious and hopeful grandson,
Portrait of Shingping Lai:
