A Chinese teenage boy has shared a heartfelt video of himself pleading with his father to be more kind to his mother after he left home due to bitter marital discord, which has gone viral on social media. It attracted attention.
Wang Nanhao (15), a native of eastern China’s Zhejiang province, is a middle school student. On April 27, 20 days after his father left home, he posted a video on Chinese TikTok Douyin, pleading with his father to be a better husband.
In the video, Wang said that her parents’ frequent arguments over the years had caused her great mental trauma, and she started reading psychology books to learn how to heal from it.
Wang said the book taught her that the secret to a happy family is open communication, which she said was lacking in her own family.
“For the past 10 years, every time my parents had an argument, my dad would slam the door and leave. But the next morning, my mom would always make me breakfast with red eyes from crying. ” he said.
He often tried to cheer up his mother after arguments, temporarily bringing peace to the household.
“But dad, it’s your responsibility as a husband to show love to your wife,” Wang told his father in the video.
Mr. Wang relied on the traditional values of the nuclear family and said: “In a healthy family relationship, the husband is seen as the provider and supporter of his wife, and the wife provides for and cares for her children.
“This nurturing environment fosters a reciprocal flow of love in which wives and children show love and appreciation to their husbands.
“My birth should have brought you more happiness, and the relationship between husband and wife should have been more important than the relationship between parent and child.”
The boy’s video received 1 million likes on Douyin and sparked a heated debate on mainland social media.
“I’ve been living for more than 30 years, and this is the first time I’ve seen a teenage boy who can truly empathize with women,” said one online observer on Weibo.
Another added: “Children from families with poor parent-child relationships often grow up not wanting to get married.”
According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the number of newlywed couples in China increased to 7.68 million last year, ending nine consecutive years of declining marriage registrations.
In a post on Weibo, independent demographer He Yafu said the increase in marriage registrations last year was mainly due to young couples increasing their numbers after China’s coronavirus restrictions caused huge bureaucratic backlogs. He pointed out that this was due to finally getting a marriage certificate.
According to official data, 2.59 million couples filed for divorce last year, up from 2.1 million the previous year.
In January 2021, China introduced a “cooling-off period” for divorce.
After filing for divorce, the couple must have a 30-day cooling off and reflection period. If divorce papers are not filed during this period, either spouse can withdraw the application.
According to Chinese media outlet Jiefang News, since the cooling-off period was implemented in 2021, it has gradually become effective in preventing impulsive and hasty divorces.
But it has also led to some high-profile cases of domestic violence, such as a man sentenced to death in late April for killing his wife during a cooling-off period.
