Grandma at 36: woman in China triggers early marriage debate with video post celebrating teenage son’s first child, racking up 240 million views
- A video post on social media about a woman becoming a grandma at 36 after her teenage son has his first child stirs marriage age debate in China
- Zhang’s eldest son, the newborn’s father, is only 18 years old, meaning he and his wife are not eligible to legally register their marriage
A Chinese woman’s proud online video post about becoming a grandmother at age 36, has started a heated national debate about early marriage and parenthood, with more than 240 million views on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform.
On July 11, the woman, surnamed Zhang, posted a video on Douyin of herself outside a maternity ward waiting for the birth of her grandchild in Nanyang, Henan province, central China.
“Welcome to the new life,” Zhang captioned the video. “Hope that all of the efforts are worthwhile.”
As the newborn’s father, Zhang’s eldest son, is only 18 years old, he and his wife could not legally register their marriage in China. Currently, the minimum age for marriage is 22 for men and 20 for women.
On July 13, Zhang posted another video and said: “I am officially a grandmother now. I was born in the 1980s and have not had the time to be filial to my parents or to perform my motherly duties, and I am now a grandmother.
“I should be with my seven-year-old son right now helping him get to sleep, but instead I’m taking care of my newborn grandson.”
The video unexpectedly went viral, and started a heated debate online in China about whether getting married and having children at a young age should be encouraged.
Some supporters of the young grandmother defended them by saying that the family completed their “life tasks” early.
“She is truly a life winner who completed her life tasks ahead of schedule, and she still looks young for a grandmother,” one person said.
Others said early marriage and having children at a very young age should be discouraged as it could cause harm to families and society.
“Teenage parents can hardly bear the responsibility of raising a child,” one person said. “It is easy to predict that the family will be unable to obtain a proper education, trapping them in a cycle of poverty.”
After her video went viral Zhang responded on Toutiao, a Chinese news and information content platform on July 20, saying: “It’s not something to be proud of.”
“I dropped out of school and left home at a young age to work in big cities, and I married my husband (father of both sons) at 19,” Zhang wrote. “I had planned to send my son to get a good education, but he ignored our advice and chose another path in life.”
However, Zhang claims that being a grandmother at 36 is “nothing new” in her hometown, where a slowing economy has seen locals falling behind the rest of China.
“People who dropped out of school early commonly marry young, but they may not post videos to tell their stories,” Zhang explained.
Zhang apologised at the end of her response for setting a “negative example” for others.
“It was my fault that my child was not properly educated, and I’d like to say sorry to you all.”
