A video of a Chinese father kneeling down and apologizing to his teenage daughter because he couldn’t afford an iPhone has sparked a heated debate about parenting in China.
According to Jinyun Video, the footage was taken on May 4 in Taiyuan, central China’s Shanxi province, when a pedestrian encountered a father and daughter on the street.
A pedestrian surnamed Chung said the conversation between the two was so loud he could clearly hear what they were saying.
The girl said to her father: She said, “Other parents can buy their children iPhones. Why don’t you have the money?”
After being severely reprimanded, the father fell to his knees and shook his head, blaming himself for his financial incompetence.
According to the video, the daughter yelled, “Wake up! Hurry up! Wake up!”, apparently thinking the father’s actions were embarrassing.
Zhong said he stood nearby and watched the interaction for about five minutes, “mourning the father” and directing his anger toward his daughter.
“I even felt the urge to walk up to her and slap her,” he said.
The video quickly went viral on Chinese social media, with 91 million views on Weibo and 6 million views on Douyin, quickly becoming a hot topic across China.
Most people blamed the girl and criticized her father for failing to properly educate his daughter.
“Consumerism has a negative impact on young people. They cling to material comfort but ignore the hardships of their parents. It’s a social tragedy!” said one user on Weibo.
“I feel sorry for them both. The daughter is very vain but it’s inappropriate for her father to be on her knees,” another commented. “Of course this dad is pathetic and his actions will only make his daughter more rebellious. He didn’t point out his child’s mistakes. He made mistakes in parenting.”
In mainland China, incidents of parents and grandparents overeating their children frequently make headlines.
In 2019, a 10-year-old boy in eastern Jiangxi grabbed his mother’s hair when she refused to buy him a toy at a shopping center.
Last year, a teenage boy received a huge backlash online after he allegedly kicked and punched his grandmother after she asked him to stop playing mobile games and return her device.
