‘FROST BOY’ STIRS POVERTY DEBATE IN CHINA
BEIJING: A viral photo of a Chinese boy whose hair is encrusted with ice after his hour-long walk to school in freezing temperatures has stirred debate about the impact of poverty on children in rural regions.
Wang Fuman, a primary school student in southwest Yunnan province, gained the moniker “Frost Boy” after his principal shared a photo online of his rosy cheeks and icy hair, Chinese media reported this week.
According to the state-owned China News Service agency, the teacher who took the photo said it generally takes Wang more than an hour to make the 4.5-kilometre (2.8-mile) journey from his home to the school.
The temperature was -9 degrees Celsius (16 Fahrenheit) the day the photo was taken, China News Service reported.
Other photos online appeared to show Wang’s chapped and swollen hands atop a near-perfect exam sheet.
Poverty alleviation has been one of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s banner
Calling for the establishment of a “moderately prosperous society,” Xi has vowed to wipe out rural poverty by 2020.
that around 43.3 million rural residents still lived below the country’s ($346) a year in the country of 1.4 billion people.
The plight of “left-behind children” like Wang, whose parents work in cities while their children stay behind in the village with siblings and grandparents, has been hotly discussed in recent years.
“We still haven’t done enough work to help the poor,” one commenter on the Twitter-like Weibo platform said. Another user noted: “China has a lot of kids like this.”
Several social media users also accused the media of exploiting “Frost Boy” and causing him to “overexert himself” by having him appear in a slew of video reports.