BEIJING: A chubby seven-year-old boy in China who agreed to skip rope exactly in line with the number of thumbs-up a video of him doing so got has seen his video clip liked by more than 1.8 million internet users.
The clip released by the father, surnamed He, on Feb 9 was flooded with likes, amused that the boy agreed to his father’s novel weight-loss idea, the Qilu Evening News reported.
The boy, nicknamed Tangdou, which means sugar bean, is being raised by his grandparents in his hometown in eastern Jiangsu province while his parents run a small restaurant in Linyi, Shandong province, also in eastern China.
Tangdou is 1.32m tall and weighs 45kg.
According to a child body development standard made by the country’s National Health Commission, a seven-year-old boy should be around 120-126 cm tall and weigh 19-26 kg.
Tangdou was reunited with his parents in Shandong in early February after his winter holiday began.
His father noticed that his son has special homework from his primary school which requires students to skip a rope 100 times a day.
The man encouraged Tangdou to insist on skipping as a way to lose weight.
In a video clip released on February 8, the father told his son that he would give him 10 yuan (US$1.50) for every 0.5kg he lost.
However, if the boy gained weight, the boy would have to pay his father 10 yuan for every 0.5kg increase. The boy agreed.
The next day, the father shared another video in which he asked the boy if he would like to skip according to the number of likes his video received. Tangdou agreed to this new motivation scheme.
“I am not forcing you. You are willing to skip the rope, right? So if 1,000 likes or even 10,000 likes are received, you will still skip?” asked the father.
“Yes,” said the boy in a firm tone.
On Feb 10, one day after the release of this video, it had attracted 1.8 million likes. On Feb 11, that number rose to 1.83 million.
In the latest clip, the father said jokingly: “I am not sure if Tangdou still regards me as his father.”
The boy was in a daze when his father told him that his video received 1.8 million thumbs up.
“I cannot skip that much. Dad, could you skip for me?” asked Tangdou.
“Both my son and I did not expect that our video would be so viral. We are still confused,” the father told the media.
“I will supervise him to continue to skip for the sake of his health. I also hope my boy understands that one must deliver on his promise,” he said.
One online observer said: “I am in low spirits today. But when I saw that he needs to skip one million times, I could not help laughing.”
While another person said: “Internet users, you are so merciless.” - South China Morning Post
