A 31-year-old man has been praised for his exemplary filial piety after selling his possessions to travel through China with his paralyzed mother, carrying her on his back just like she did with him when he was a baby.

Xiao Ma was just eight years old when his parents were involved in a terrible car accident that claimed his father’s life and left his mother unable to move. He and his older sister were forced to take care of themselves as well as their mother, who was later diagnosed with cerebral atrophy, as a consequence of the car accident. Growing up, he worked in the fields picking cotton, was an apprentice in various fields and opened his own restaurant in Xinjiang. Most of the money he made went towards his mother’s recovery, and his hard work seemed to pay off, as the woman was slowly able to leave the bed that had become her prison to sit in a wheelchair and even take a few small steps. However, a few years ago, Xiao Ma got the devastating news that his mother’s cerebral atrophy was not only incurable but progressing at a steady pace. That’s when he decided to make the best of the time he had left with her.

Instead of focusing on his business, Xiao Ma decided to sell his house and his car so he could take his mother on trips around China. Her regressing brain is comparable to that of a small child, so Ma wants to spend as much time with her as possible while she can still appreciate these moments. They have visited Tianshan Mountain, Tianchi Lake and other places in Xinjiang, as well as Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall. The elderly woman can no longer speak, but she always smiles when they travel, which is good enough for her loving son who says she was sad when she was confined to her bed.

“Love doesn’t wait, filial piety is never late, and action is the best answer,” Xiao Ma recently said. “My mother carried me when I was a child, and now I carry her.”

 

Photos of the 31-year-old man carrying his mother on his back at Tiananmen Square went viral on Chinese social media, drawing the praise of millions around the country, but Xiao Ma has been carrying his disabled mother for years and documenting their travels through short videos posted on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok. In fact, the support of his fans is the main reason that Ma can afford to continue traveling with his mother.

“Home is where my mother is,” Xiao Ma said when asked when he plans to return home, adding that he didn’t want to live with regrets regarding his mother’s final years on this Earth.