bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Nectar Gan

A migrant worker who decided to stay on at his job over the Lunar New Year to earn extra money for his son’s education said he deeply regretted the decision after the boy had died over the holiday in central China. 
“Everything I did was for my child,” the tearful father said in footage released on Pear Video. 
“If I had known this would happen, I would definitely have come back for the Lunar New Year to spend time with him.” 
Girl, 12, sells hair to buy phone to call migrant worker mother
The 13-year-old boy, who lived in Yichuan county, Henan province, went missing after going outside to play on Friday night. 
When he had not returned by 9pm, the family went looking for him. 
They found him unconscious, lying in the road next to a garbage truck and covered in blood, Pear Video reported on Wednesday. 
The boy was rushed to hospital but died on Tuesday. 
The father, a security guard, said he had planned to work through the holiday to earn more money to cover his son’s education costs.
‘I’ll save the cash to buy clothes for my wife’: Chinese migrant worker’s 40km trek home
“Everything I’ve given in the past 13 years, material or spiritual, has now vanished,” the father was quoted as saying. “All my hopes have been shattered.”
The report did not say where the father worked. 
Police had launched an investigation into the hit-and-run case, it said. 

The boy’s uncle said travel costs were a factor in the father’s decision to pass up an opportunity to return home for the holiday. 
“Travelling all the way home would also take a lot of time,” the uncle said. “It’s not easy to get back. 
“By continuing to work through the Lunar New Year, he would earn them more money.” 
One of 60 million: life as a ‘left-behind’ child in China
The boy was one of an estimated 60 million children in China’s rural villages who have been left in the care of relatives by parents who have headed for cities to search for work. 
The youngsters’ lack of proper care has been cited as a reason for numerous mishaps related to mental health and physical hardships, including the suicide three years ago of four siblings in impoverished Guizhou province.
 


Why the Year of the Horse 2026 could bring chaos but also great progress

Rising down jacket sales offer unexpected cushion against deflation in mainland China

Year of the Snake 10th month predictions for all 12 Chinese zodiac signs. Is your luck in?

Your horoscopes for November 2025, the month of Fire Pig: work, money and relationships

Lunar New Year

‘Everything I did was for him’: a Chinese migrant worker’s haunting Lunar New Year regret

Police have launched an investigation into the hit-and-run. Photo: Pear Video

TO GO WITH China-education-children-economy,FOCUS by Johannes Eisele This photo taken on June 19, 2015 shows Huang Xiahong (R), who organizes donations for children in rural areas, walking on her way to the Chongshan Primary School near the town of Longfu Township, in southern China's Guangxi. There are an estimated 61 million "left behind" children -- about the population of Italy -- in China's countryside whose parents have moved to the cities to find jobs, or died. Most are raised by their grandparents or other family members, and state media report that more than three percent are simply left on their own, citing statistics from the All-China Women's Federation. AFP PHOTO / JOHANNES EISELE