Online anger as China father demands half of children’s US$36,000 Lunar New Year lucky money during divorce, court denies claim
- Ya sui qian is a traditional Lunar New Year gift in which cash is placed in a red envelope, given to children for good fortune
- Video attracts more than 6 million views, 3,000 comments, many angry at father
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A father who demanded his children’s 260,000 yuan (US$36,000) Lunar New Year lucky money be split during divorce so he could keep half, has provoked anger on mainland social media.
A court in southwestern China’s Chongqing city granted the man and his wife, who use the aliases of Cai and Wang, a divorce.
However, the court refused to support Cai’s demand that the money gifted to their two sons be divided up, Jiupai News reported.
Lucky money, called ya sui qian in Mandarin, is a traditional Lunar New Year gift in which cash is placed in a red envelope and given to children by married couples for good fortune. It is customary for parents to look after their children’s lucky money.
Cai and Wang married in 2007 and had a son in 2012, then another son in 2014.
The couple had a serious quarrel at the beginning of 2020, and Wang left the family home to stay with her parents taking the children with her.
Since then, the three have been living with her parents. Divorce papers were filed in 2020, but were rejected by the court.
Cai recently refiled for divorce after more than 400 days of living apart from his wife. In the settlement, he asked for half the jointly owned property and half the children’s lucky money.
Unlike with the previous petition, the court granted a divorce after deciding their marriage had failed.
While the court ordered a division of the property between the couple, it rejected Cai’s request to split the lucky money because it was not considered part of the joint property.
At the time of writing, the video had attracted 6.13 million views and 3,305 comments, with the majority of which expressed anger over the man’s behaviour.
“This man is horrible,” one said.
“Will this man pay child maintenance? I doubt it,” said another.
Stories about parents pocketing their children’s lucky money regularly trigger criticism in China.
In January 2023, 13-year-old twins in eastern China sued their father for the return of 16,800 yuan (US$2,300) lucky money he had taken from them after divorcing their mother, winning praise on mainland social media.
In February 2019, a 10-year-old boy in southeastern China also filed a lawsuit against his father to return 3,000 yuan of lucky money.
