Young girl with skin pigment condition and blonde-haired woman share special moment at night market. Video of interaction between 20-year-old and girl, 5, gets 300,000 likes on social media platform Douyin. — SCMP
The heartwarming interaction between a young girl with albinism and a woman with dyed blonde hair has moved many in China’s online community.
The 20-year-old woman, surnamed Weng, from southwestern China’s Guizhou province, was at a night market for a barbecue meal when she was spotted by the daughter of a nearby stall owner.
The five-year-old, who has the lack of pigment characteristic of the genetic condition, was so excited to see Weng’s pale blonde head that she came over to ask Weng why they shared the same hair colour.
“All princesses have golden hair,” Weng said, prompting the child to cuddle the woman and touch her hair until she finished her meal.
Weng posted a video clip of her interaction with the girl on her Douyin account which received nearly 300,000 likes in just two days.
She was effusive in her praise to the child during the meal, telling her she was beautiful and looked like a Barbie doll.
The encounter made her realise that kind words spoken unintentionally can warm others for a long time, Weng told Bailu Video.
The exchange also delighted the online community, with one person commenting that “You are two angels”.
“I saw the light in the little girl’s eyes when she checked out her hair. She was really happy,” another commenter said.
One person advised the girl not to worry: “The hair colour that many pay for is free to you for life.”
Albinos in China are known as “moon children”, a poetic reference to their extreme sensitivity to sunlight because of the lack of pigment in their skin, hair and eyes.
But the lives of China’s estimated 90,000 albinos are less than poetic.
Many face implicit discrimination at school and work because of their unique appearance, as Liu Yin, an albino and volunteer with the non-profit organisation Moon Children’s Home, said in 2017.
Another albino, from a village in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, told Xinmin Weekly that his mother did not know albinism is a genetic disorder and never accepted his appearance.
The man said he had to dye his hair black every time he visited her until she passed away when he was 40, despite the higher cancer risk of hair dye for albinos. – South China Morning Post
