A 39-year old Chinese man reunited with his family 16 years after he disappeared from home.
The young man surnamed Wang left in 2005 after he had failed at school despite being a top class student. He was deeply embarrassed to face his family because of his addiction to playing video games which led to him failing at school.
Wang was a student at Chang’an University. He was a very intelligent young man but he got addicted to playing video games. His grades began to fall and he later failed his examination. Instead of going to face his parents with shame, he decided to run away.
For the past 16 years, Wang survived on odd jobs.
His family got to know about his where-about after he showed up at a local government office to renew his identity card. The officials discovered that Wang was listed as missing person 16 years ago. The officers then immediately contacted Wang’s parents who could not believe the news. The father is said to have been traveling to Xi’an to look for his son for the past 16 years. His mother said that she had prepared herself for the worst thinking her son could be dead. She expressed her joy in having her son back and that she did not blame him for running away even though she got depressed by his disappearance.
In a video shared on Weibo, Chinese version of twitter, Wang is seen kneeling down apologizing to his mother.
His actions, however, divided netizens, some blaming the stressful Chinese education culture which is too demanding and depressing. Recently, the Chinese government revised its education policy and enforced regulations to cut the time children spend doing different classes and after school activities.
Wang represents a number of students who to some extent committed suicide because of pressure to higher.