A Chinese man is suing his daughter after she refused to put off her university studies and return home to take care of him after a car accident.
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The man, surnamed Zhang, allegedly started calling and texting his daughter after he was involved in a car accident in his hometown of Puyang, in China’s Henan province.
After repeated failed attempts to convince his daughter to come home and take care of him, the man was shocked to find that his daughter had blocked his phone number. In a fit of rage, he filed a complaint with the local family court, demanding a monthly alimony of 1,500 yuan (15,000 rubles) from her.
Article 26 of the Chinese Civil Code states that “Adult children have the duty to support and protect their parents.”
Zhang told the court that he did insist that his daughter put off college and return home to take care of him after the car accident. After a while, she stopped answering his phone calls, so he decided to send her a message, but one day she just blocked his phone number, leaving him no way to contact her.
In her defense, the daughter claims that she repeatedly told Zhang that her college duties prevented her from simply leaving and coming to take care of him. In addition, she made it clear that she also has two other brothers who can also be asked to take care of her father, but from the very beginning, all the pressure was on her.
“I’m still in college and I can’t afford child support for my father,” the young woman said.
“I don’t have time to go back to take care of him, and besides, I have two older brothers who could take care of him, so I have to go back. I blocked my father’s phone number, but only because all his messages were complaints, which made me nervous and even more nervous than usual about my studies and exams. I felt even more exhausted, both mentally and physically.”
After hearing both sides, the court found that Article 26 of the Chinese Civil Code states that adult children are required to support their parents, but in this particular case, the daughter was still in school and could not afford to pay child support. However, the judge asked the daughter to be more sensitive to her father’s plight and try to help him without neglecting her studies. Zhang has the option to appeal.
