Two weeks before International Children's Day, 10-year-old Huanhuan and her sister Lele arrived in Kaifeng early one morning, accompanied by police from another city. Although they were close to home, they felt more lost than ever.

Huanhuan and Lele's parents were waiting for them at the exit of the train station. Although the family was reunited, strangely none of them seemed to be happy or even expected this moment. 

The girls' hometown is in Wanlong county near the city of Kaifeng in Henan Province. Three days ago, Huanhuan and Lele, together with other four local children were sent back to Kaifeng by police after they were found to have been in Shanghai putting on acrobatics shows for money for the past few years. 

It was not difficult to spot them among a crowd of kids at the local primary schools as they stand out. When asked about their experiences in Shanghai, the girls became confused and restless. 

"The head of the county government brought them to the school in person a couple of days ago and gave them 200 yuan ($32.66) each for school fees," one of Huanhuan's classmates said.   

Before they were sent back, some concerned people thought the children had been abducted or kidnapped and went to the police to have them rescued.

However, the owner of the acrobatics troupe claimed this was all a misunderstanding and that they were never kidnapped.

So what happened to these kids and who exactly are they? 

The girls' grandmother takes care of their cousin on their farmland in Wanlong county, Henan Province. Photo: Liu Dong/GT

Careful savior

It all started from an anonymous report that Zaizai (pseudonym) received on May 2. Zaizai is a member of a volunteer group who provides child abduction leads to police in order to help parents to find their missing kids.

"The report said there were kids performing acrobatics at a bar in Shanghai's Pudong district and there were suspicions they might have been abducted," Zaizai told the Global Times.

Zaizai went to Shanghai right away and met with the informer. They posed as customers looking to hire the kids to perform and contacted the troupe's manager.

"We said we wanted to see the kids perform first before we made a deal and the manager agreed to take us to where they live to take a look," Zaizai said.

On May 13, Zaizai met with six kids, four boys and two girls from 8 to 14 and their manager, Shan Jingping, a woman in her 40s in a two-room apartment in Pudong New Area. The kids showed off several kinds of acrobatic moves, including contortions. 

During their talk, Shan told Zaizai these kids all hailed from the same place in Henan. They came to Shanghai several years ago since their families are too poor to feed them. Their parents agreed to send them to learn acrobatics with the troupe. Shan was responsible for taking care of them, teaching them how to perform and setting up shows for them, while periodically sending money back to the kids' families. 

"When I asked them if they go to school, Shan said she teaches them herself but I didn't see any educational materials in the room." Zaizai said.

"We have to imagine that these kids were rented out by their parents to perform acrobatics in the city and get money that way instead of going to school like other children their age. We have to do something," he said. 

In 2011, local media once reported that kids in Henan province had been rented out by their parents to an acrobatic troupe for earning money. Some of these kids allegedly died from the mistreatment they received, the newspaper claimed.

After leaving the apartment, Zaizai went straight to the local police and called authorities in Henan. The Shanghai police moved quickly after being tipped off, bringing in the manager and six kids for questioning. Meanwhile, Henan police also sent a team to Shanghai to assist in the investigation.    

However, after questioning, police said they couldn't find any evidence to charge Shan. They released her and sent the children back to their homes in Henan.

To find out the truth behind the troupe and the stories of these children and their families, the Global Times went to Henan and heard quite a different story. 

Truth will out

Wang Huan, mother to Huanhuan and Lele, admitted she knew about her children performing acrobatics in Shanghai but insisted that the family never received any money from that when speaking to the Global Times from her farmhouse last Wednesday.

According to Wang, Shan Jingping is her relative and quite a famous woman locally. She left for Shanghai a long time ago, learned acrobatics and married a local man.

"We had four children and we really couldn't afford to bring them up and put them through school. So we thought that sending them to live with Shan in Shanghai and learn acrobatics would give them a better life," Wang said.

In Wang's eyes, although living without her daughters was painful, sending them to Shanghai was also a way to reduce the burden of taking care of her two other kids. 

Huanhuan was sent to Shanghai when she was only 5, with Lele following a year later. Wang said she goes to Shanghai to visit them a few times each year but the kids only came back to their hometown for a few days during Spring Festival.

"My daughter told me Shan treated them well and never abused them. It is a total misunderstanding if the newspaper said we rented them out for money and they were mistreated," Wang said.

"They can learn some skills to make a living, besides living in a city like Shanghai is much better than here. We appreciate what Shan has done," Wang said.

When asked about schooling, Wang said her daughters were sent to the local school right after they arrived home but were having severe trouble catching up.

"In fact, my daughters can't get used to life here now after they lived in Shanghai for such a long time," the woman said.

Vicious circle 

"Those kids would never be able to simply return home and be the same as their friends in their hometown. It's just a matter of time before they come back to the big city they know so well and to the surroundings they have experienced most of their lives. They belong here now," Shan Jingping told the Global Times by phone.

Shan complained about the unfair treatment she has received due to the scrutiny with which this case has met. She claims that she would like to send the children to school regularly but that it is hard to do so and maintain a balance between practice and study.

"The best option is to send them to an acrobatics school but this costs tens of thousands of yuan a year and is too expensive for a village family," Shan said.

"People in the city never understand the fate of those from the countryside and always impose their values on us. Actually we have the same goal as those volunteers. We want to give these kids a brighter future but we just choose a different way," Shen said.

But Zaizai still stands firm on the fact that these kids should stay with their parents.

Having helped to rescue hundreds of missing kids over the past six years in China, Zaizai knows the situation faced by the families all too well as well as the reality to which the police is confronted.

"Our actions, and even those of the police, are of little help to these children most of the time. If the police can't find conclusive proof that the kids were abused or involved in some sort of crime, they cannot intervene, even if they are certain the parents rented them out for money," he lamented.

"In this case, which is not a typical child abduction or kidnapping case, even if they weren't abused, it's wrong to make children earn a living so early and deprive them of an education," he argued. "How can we help them to get out of this vicious circle between making a living and poverty?"

Gu Jun, a sociology professor from Shanghai University, thinks the issue is complicated at many levels and requires broad social action to truly enshrine and protect the rights of minors.

"When we talk about what society can do for these kids, we should realize that children from poor rural families do truly want to go to school, and if they get that opportunity, they will work harder and pay back this chance more than many kids in the city. But for almost all poor families in countryside, school fees can overwhelm them. If this problem can't be solved, even sending the children back to their parents won't help as it will only be a matter of time before they are sent away again."

(The children's names have been changed in this story.)