Seems like every day is Mother’s Day here

Perhaps it’s just another of China’s inexplicable (to a foreigner) cultural quirks — like dressing up tiny dogs to look like Elton John or snapping selfies with plates of food.

Still, from a Western perspective, the apparent lack of meaningful interaction between Chinese fathers and their kids only lends credence to the notion that this is a society in which mothers have to work twice as hard to be appreciated half as much.

The point was hammered home in several TV commercials leading up to Mother’s Day. Most of the spots highlighted the indispensable role that moms play in keeping the family running smoothly, but there were also some that comically por-

trayed dads as bumbling idiots, incapable of much more than paying bills or serving as chauffeurs.

Sadly, that doesn’t seem far from the truth — which might also explain the ongoing popularity of Hunan Television’s reality series Where Are We

Going, Dad?, in which five celebrity fathers from urban China accompany their youngsters on 72-hour treks to the countryside, competing as father-child duos in a series of contrived competitions against other coupled contestants.

The dads come from a wide variety of backgrounds and professions — entertainers, actors, former Olympic athletes — but they all share the belief that they haven’t spent enough quality time with their offspring. As part of China’s burgeoning middle class, they’ve supposedly faced more exposure to modern child-rearing techniques than their own fathers, but you’d never know it by watching them.

Whether trying their hand at fishing, riding camels through the western deserts or selling vegetables to earn bus fare home from the wilds of Yunnan province, the dads come across as … well … incredibly dopey.

In one episode, a father was close to tears because he didn’t know how to braid his daughter’s hair. In another, the dad had to survive three days in the desert with his son, subsisting on instant noodles because he didn’t know how to cook anything.

“I’ve only been taking care of my son for three full days, and I feel like breaking down,” actor Guo Tao said in a first-season episode. “I just can’t imagine how my wife managed to do this for the past six years.”

Beyond the easy laughs, the true value of Where Are We

Going, Dad? is that it doesn’t shy away from shedding realworld light on the elephant in the room: Chinese fathers need to suck it up and take a much more active role in raising their kids.

Granted, it’s easy to judge from the outside looking in, but from a Western vantage point it seems obvious that most of the grunt work involved in raising Chinese children is done by the mothers, while the main role of the typical urban father is to skulk around the periphery and earn enough money to support the family.

That ain’t good enough anymore, dad.

Put down your damn cellphone once in a while and pick up a ball or a picture book … anything that can help you connect with your kid(s). Do it now.

Before you know it, the opportunity will be gone forever.