Little Chinese girl asks mum to treat her well in public, highlights value of face-saving

Netizens in China have applauded a toddler who told her mother to treat her nicely in front of people to save face.

The girl’s mother, an online influencer with 75,000 followers, posted a video she filmed a year ago of her three-year-old daughter, Mibao, on February 16.

The woman from northern China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, surnamed Wang, said she was touched by the old video and decided to share it.

In the video, Mibao tells her mother not “to scold me and support me when other people are around”.

She said she wanted to cry whenever Wang treated her rudely in public, because she did not want other people to laugh at her.

(Mibao received a wave of online support for asking her mother to treat her well in public. Photo: Douyin)

Wang, who spoke tenderly with her daughter, immediately acknowledged her mistake and promised to protect her daughter’s self-esteem in future.

Wang said when she was a child, her parents would educate her in front of other people, even sometimes when she was right and they were wrong, to make them look better.

She said she did not want to repeat their mistakes.

In traditional Chinese culture, people value face, or mianzi, which means a person’s pride in a group.

Many Chinese young people suffered trauma after being commented on by parents about their studies and compared with other kids in front of relatives when they were children.

Education experts have said it is important to protect children’s “face”in the interests of their mental health.

The girl’s straightforward expression of her need for saving face was applauded by many people online.

“Kids are not the property of their parents. They have their independent personalities, and need to be protected and respected,” one online observer said.

Ref: Little Chinese girl asks mum to treat her well in public, highlights value of face-saving  (scmp)