Devoted son, 65, filmed caring for his 104-year-old mother steals Chinese hearts online
Centenarian mum is too old and fragile to get out of bed so doting son feeds her warm milk from a baby’s bottle
A 65-year-old man from eastern China has won the hearts of people across the country after a video of him caring for his 104-year-old mother was circulated online.
A 90-second video of Wang Hongliang gently fanning his elderly and infirm mum, and feeding her warm milk from a baby’s bottle appeared on the news platform Pearvideo.com at the weekend and became an instant hit with social media users.
“The house has nothing but four walls, but there is the purest human feeling,” a person wrote on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter. “He really leaves us in the dust.”
Wang and his mother live in a village on the outskirts of Weifang, Shandong province, where he makes a modest living collecting scrap. In the video, he explains that he is her sole carer, though doesn’t say if she is suffering from any health problems other than old age.
“‘Old mum’ eats first, but I always test the temperature of the food in advance,” he said using a pet name. In the film he can be seen warming milk on a simple stove before pouring it into a baby’s bottle and feeding it to his mother.
Although his mum is unable to get up from her bed, Wang said they are company for one another.
“Old mum is there so I have someone to talk with. Otherwise I don’t [have anyone],” he said.
In another clip, Wang fans his mother with a frond. He said they used to have an electric fan, but his mother complained it made her too cold, so he switched to the traditional method.
“The old saying goes: there’s no filial son when a mother is sick for a long time. But it’s not the case for Wang,” another person wrote on Weibo.
When Wang is not caring for his mother, he said he rides around the neighbourhood on his tricycle looking for scrap he can sell on for a few yuan.
Another online commentator suggested people shouldn’t just comment on the plight of Wang and his mother, but rather offer them some real assistance.
“I hope this wasn’t just shot for a media report, but also was a call to kind-hearted people to offer some help,” the person said.
