Why Are Millions of Chinese Kids Parenting Themselves?
Why Are Millions of Chinese Kids Parenting Themselves?
Generations of Wang Ying’s family farmed the misty mountains of Liangshan, one of China’s poorest regions. But now, the 14-year-old girl lives on her own as the sole caretaker of her two younger siblings. They are among an estimated 9 million “left-behind children” raising themselves in the Chinese countryside.
“Down from the Cold Mountain” was directed by Max Duncan. It is part of The Atlantic Selects, an online showcase of short documentaries from independent creators, curated by The Atlantic.
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I know Mother is not C O M PL A I N I N G about the children… 🙄
A prison in the us make more money that very sad for the kids
Wish I cud help…
im so sadddd😢😢😢😢
*15 dollars a day for making headphones. . . This is whats wrong in that place, people are not getting paid enough for the work they do but things keep getting more and more expensive.*
That’s the China I originally fell in love with…
I wish the world is filled with happiness and love plus peace for ever
I will not kill chinese again in pubg😀😀😀
This is a great documentary that reminds us of how much must still be done to help those suffering while we live in comfort.
But one question keeps bothering me: What do media outlets that report on these issues do to help the people who willingly shared their struggles to them? I hope they get compensated- through direct cash, scholarships for their children, Chinese lessons for those parents or anything at all to make their situation better in the long term.
Ugh why isn’t the president doing anything about this? He makes me mad
In order to help these poor people, China government must be reformed from totalitarian communist party to democracy to build their country and help their own people’s economy instead of spending a trillion dollars on Xi Jinping’s 1 belt 1 road world domination dream by manipulating other countries’ government and invading smaller countries— and the sea.
The Wang siblings are so beautiful
Wasn’t there a single child rule in China ??
The smiles on children faces when they saw their mother was priceless.
Poor people tend to make children even if they are poor. Thats why its always a struggle
Such beautiful kids I hope the best for them
Life is unfair to the poor
This is very sad. I believe all humans have the potential for greatness, and this sort of poverty is just terrible for the human spirit. I know from experience. All kids start the same, but are molded into political, greedy machines.
Why do people have children if they cannot look after them or cannot afford them. Is that not sign of mental deficiency ? Low intelligence and MORONS ought to be sterilized to stop wasteful and hurtful propagation. They are serious burden on the productive part of societies.
A joy to watch. Chinese are cunts and when I see their people harming their own people, it makes me REALLY happy.
0:00 – 5:00
The thunder in the background noise and also the rain and the seemingly constant cloud cover made it look all the more gloomy and sad and forboreding.
When you are wearing headphones and you see 6:34 in video. Also that if you complained about some of them beforehand. This is very sad but truthfully important to know the other side of a country. And why education is key to success. Hopefully everything will go well for them.
I am really Pathetic I wanted to commit suicide because I failed in engineering and then I see them I have everything I need but still I thought life was hard but when I saw them I realize how pathetic i am
They’re really beautiful inside and outsude
Aww I feel really bad for the older sister, she seems to be having a really tough time….Jeez what am I doing, I need to get to work!
the oldest sister is so positive, i admire her. God bless this family and other people who lives in these poorest regions.
Unleast Mom could stay home. sad,very sad.
13:12
The problem is not in money it in in us our selves, provided we improve ourselves and use it and spend it wisely and think and act nicely and positively and also consider others than just ourselves Money is going to be a wonderful thing.
I don’t understand why do people marry and have kids when they are soo poor I would never do that I don’t want to burden my children like that
The parents said they can’t read or speak Chinese so what are they speaking a type of Mandarin?
That cough the little boy has is very concerning
They made my apple headphones that break
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Lessons : Don’t marriage. Dont get kids. Till you rich enough to feed entire family and buying time for family. Your welcome.
As the eldest – I can definitely relate to how she is feeling. It’s hard to be the first to grow up when everyone your age is playing around.
I really felt bad n sorry but if you can’t afford at least can do some family planning….if they had just 1 child…they could be with their child…or save less and give their child better life physically too
3:50 very disrespectful if I was her I would beat him up Chinese style lol
I feel bad that I got a MacBook Pro and a iPhone 8 this year
Rich people eat a goat single people eat an egg 😀
I feel so guilty and terrible right now since I’m Chinese myself but I never thought there’re plenty of kids in the countryside live like this…. I guess I couldn’t even make it for just 1 week if I live without parents at their age… I literally cried when the big sister in this video says she think a family being together is more important than anything … 😭 (btw the book she’s reading at 0:59 is my childhood favorite novel it’s called The Girl’s Daily. My heart melted when I saw it since I used to read it for million times 😀 )
I love this documentary. Totally felt their emotions. Sadness, their hope and even their will to understand that both side, parents and kids have their stories and understand why both parties do what they do. Love it!
I took a quarter of China for fun along with my other class at our University. I found out you don’t take it for fun. We had to learn 40 characters a week. And you have to learn each character in a specific order. Some can have up to 16 lines in one character! I was raising two kids by myself, working half time and had a load of 18 credits. It was just too much. Just taking it alone would have been great but I couldn’t do that. Out of 21 of us that started the class four years later one graduated. It takes knowing at least 2,300 characters to read a newspaper. She and our Professor went to Taiwan together. When she got back I asked her how it went? I was excited to find out. She said, "D, I hardly understood anyone!" She was so disappointed. Four years she’d studied Chinese and that was the result. It’s just sad how hard it is to learn such a difficult language. I can see why these parents feel ashamed. Wish I could do something for them. 🙁 I can’t imagine going up and down that mountain all the time. Wow. Good on ya kids. I’m a teacher and education is a wonderful thing. Hang in there and keep studying. 🙂 Songsmirth
Wow
They will grow up to be best men and women because they know the value of money and struggle and family
Around @3:45 when he coughs, aww.
蠢死了，誰說讀了書，以後就不用辛苦，一路順利
OMG the girl is BEAUTIFUL
This is why no matter how tough my life gets I always keep in mind so many people in the world have things so bad I couldn’t comprehend it. This video was a tiny glimpse into thought.
My heart broke for the oldest girl. All she wanted was her family, she can’t enjoy normal childhood things because having to be the mother to her siblings. The maternal grandmother was vile! Only 40 min away but "sometimes she comes and helps us plant and farmwork. And sometimes she doesn’t come at all."
The worst part was the look on the daughter’s face as her mother keeps yelling at her for making a innocent mistake and knocking the basket over. The mother tells the daughter she is lazy and just stands around doing nothing. While the daughter just looks at her mother with a look of so many unsaid feelings, questions, sadness and anger "how can you tell me that? I do everything I can at home and go to school. I make good grades. I have to act like a mother to 2 siblings, only I’m just a child. How am I supposed to know what to Do or make them listen. I never asked to be born!"
They have pretty facial features
China is a prime example of why no country should allow "corporations" to gain control of government — OR FAMILIES. Shame on all you so called "leaders" in China!! Your ignorance is damaging your own people!!!