A Chinese father, desperate for money, has a heart-rending plea to passersby on a street in Beijing: they may hit him on his buttocks in exchange for 10 yuan ($1.45), so he can accumulate enough money to pay for his son’s operation.
Wearing only his boxers, the dad can be found kneeling in the frigid weather, right next to a metro station in central Beijing. He held up a wooden stick, offering strangers to hit him for a small amount of money. According to the Mirror (via South China Morning Post), his wife sat by his side, with their one-year-old son who has a congenital eye disorder.
The poor family from Chongqing had traveled almost 1,500 km to the capital to have the child treated. A message on a cardboard sign next to himself explained their quandary: Without immediate treatment, the infant could go blind permanently.
The 100,000 yuan (over $14,500) hospital fee required for the operation was too much for the man, which is why he had to resort to desperate means. So far, there have been a few people who donated money, but nobody has hit him yet.
“I was forced by the reality and there was nothing else I could do. I felt so guilty and sad … I did this to raise attention in the hope people will help my son,” he was quoted as saying.
