Remembering ‘Daddy Song’: sudden death of Chinese teacher reveals 20 years of secret generosity which kept at least 30 poor students afloat
- Scores of students from across China attend funeral of generous school teacher who gave to the poor and told no-one about it
- His giving secret only emerged after his sudden death, aged 48, when his family were sorting through his belongings
The sudden death of a 48-year-old Chinese secondary school teacher just days before the Lunar New Year holidays has unearthed a secret he had kept buried for almost 20 years.
The secret belonged to Song Wenwu who lived with his family in Huaiyuan County in China’s eastern province of Anhui, and it has touched millions online.
His colleague, Mr Zhou, has told Shanghai-based online media Pear Video that Song passed away after suffering a sudden cerebral haemorrhage: “He collapsed while going to the toilet and never got up.”
Due to the fact that Song’s death coincided with the holiday, his students converged on his hometown for the funeral, in total more than 1,000 were in attendance.
From 1999 until he passed away, Song taught the Chinese language at a rural secondary school. This was the key to his closely held secret.
