A three-year-old girl in China who initially looked like a typical Asian newborn has stunned millions after her eyes turned bright blue and her hair became blonde and curly as she grew, despite both her parents being Chinese with dark hair and dark eyes.
The toddler lives in Yancheng, a city in Jiangsu province in eastern China, where her striking appearance has helped her family’s videos rack up huge attention on social media, with reports putting the total at around 120 million views.
The child, nicknamed Guojiang – meaning “jam” – was born in May 2022 and her parents said nothing seemed unusual at first.
But when she was about eight months old, they noticed a dramatic change as her eyes began turning blue, leaving the couple confused and increasingly anxious.
They even wondered whether there had been a mix-up at the hospital and whether they had been sent home with the wrong baby.
But multiple DNA tests later confirmed the girl is their biological child, putting the hospital-swap fears to rest and pushing the family to look for answers in their own history.
After digging into their family tree, relatives told them Guojiang’s paternal great-grandfather was Russian and had married a woman from Henan province in central China, with the Russian ancestor having lived in China until his death in 1985.
Her father, surnamed Yang, said the “foreign” traits had never shown up clearly in the family before because, until Guojiang, every birth in his line had been male – and he believes the recessive genes linked to appearance did not express in men.
He said: “The recessive genes inherited from my great-grandfather, which affect our appearance, seem to be inactive in males,” adding that neither he nor his father shows obvious mixed-heritage features.
By her first birthday, her Caucasian traits were said to be much more pronounced: her hair had turned blonde and curly, her eyelashes had grown long, and her blue eyes appeared increasingly vivid.
Yang said: “Some elderly relatives and friends say my daughter resembles her great-grandfather a lot.”
Her parents said the attention can be relentless when they go out, with strangers frequently stopping to ask why the little girl “looks foreign”. And the family admitting they sometimes grow tired of having to explain it again and again.
Since September, Guojiang has been attending preschool. Where she is described as cheerful and friendly, and speaks fluent Chinese.
The family also has a distant relative living in Serbia. Yang said, although they rarely keep in touch.
The story has sparked heated debate online, with commenters marvelling at the child’s “doll-like” features, while others joked that without modern DNA testing it would have been far harder to settle the question of her origins.
To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below. Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub-Editor: Simona Kitanovska, Agency: AsiaWire Report
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