Free film 'The Secret Tree' highlights plight of child sex abuse victims

A film that tells the story of a victim of child sex abuse will have its national premiere in Beijing today.

The Secret Tree is an independent movie co-produced for 200,000 yuan (HK$252,000) by director Wu Shuang and several non-governmental organisations to raise awareness of what they say is a hugely underreported problem.

It tells the story of a primary school pupil left behind by migrant-worker parents to live with her grandmother in a rural area of Henan province , a similar situation to millions of underprivileged children across the country.

The girl tells all her secrets to an old tree: how she wishes to see her mother, to study at university - and details of how she was raped. "I came across one girl's story and the impact of what she went through could never be wiped from my heart so I wanted to do something about it to keep more girls from harm," Wu said.

Wu said most sexual abuse cases went unreported on the mainland. About 80 per cent of child abuse victims are thought to be children living with grandparents or guardians and who fall victim to sexual predators while their parents are working away from home, according to media reports.

Figures from the Supreme People's Procuratorate show there were 7,963 child sex abuse prosecutions, involving 8,069 people, from 2010 to last year.