Suicide attempt blamed on sibling custody pressure

A suicide attempt by a 20-year-old woman in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, last month, blamed on the pressure of raising her younger brother and two sisters, has sparked public discussion about custody among siblings.

The woman, surnamed Liu, jumped into a river in Hangzhou’s Xiacheng district on March 23 and was saved by police. She has since returned to her hometown in Yunnan province, a district government staff member said.

Police said Liu’s parents divorced when she was very young. She had to assume the responsibility of raising her younger brother and two younger sisters and left Yunnan to seek work elsewhere when she was a teenager.

Liu had attempted suicide before, and police said her wrists bore dozens of scars. After being sent to hospital, Liu was taken away by her uncle.

The district’s Women’s Federation, which became involved in her case, said Liu has been unstable emotionally and was not accepting donations for the time being. It said it was trying to gain a better understanding of the matter and would provide help when needed.

The case has some parallels with the plot of a film that was released on April 2 called My Sister, in which the main character, 24-year-old An Ran, struggles to pursue her personal development and bring up her 6-year-old brother after their parents die in a traffic accident.

The film has won wide praise from viewers, and its theme has sparked heated discussion over the role of women and traditional values, such as the preference for sons over daughters and filial piety.

Sociologist Li Yinhe, an expert in women’s studies, called the film “a profound work based on a solid foundation of social reality” because it revealed fierce clashes between traditional family values and individualism in the course of China’s modernization.

After the film’s release, topics such as “Does elder sister have to raise younger brother” and “Should elder sister sacrifice more for younger brother” began to trend on the Sina Weibo micro-blogging platform.

Some people said An Ran, as an individual herself, should not bind her life to that of her younger sibling and sacrifice her happiness, and should instead pursue her own life and goals. Others, however, said she was the only family member her brother could count on in the film.

Calling the Hangzhou incident the “reality version” of My Sister, many netizens condemned Liu’s parents for putting such pressure on her.

Li Ying, a public interest lawyer and founder of the Beijing Yuanzhong Gender Development Center, told media outlet ThePaper.cn that Liu’s experience differed from An Ran’s in that Liu’s parents are divorced rather than deceased.

According to China’s Civil Code, if the parents of a minor are dead or incapable of guardianship, the people who should take over custody of the children are, in order, their grandparents, brothers or sisters, and then other individuals or organizations willing to act as guardians. Therefore, in the film, An Ran has such an obligation.

In Liu’s case, however, Li said her divorced parents still had the responsibility to raise their children. The fact that Liu migrated for work as a teenager to support her siblings and had tried to commit suicide more than once indicated that her parents had failed to fulfill their parental obligations, she said.