Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
Video Credit: AsiaWire / Mr Deng
This viral video seen more than 20 million times shows a toddler outwitting her dad’s TV time restriction by staring at her favourite cartoon playing on a television screen across the street 200 feet away.
Deng Yuqian, three, is only allowed to watch her favourite cartoon Super Wings for 15 minutes a day because her parents are concerned about her eyesight, her father told Asia Wire.
But Mr Deng, from the city of Huludao in north-eastern China’s Liaoning Province, can only admire his daughter’s ingenuity in finding a way around his television restrictions.
Footage posted to his personal account on video-sharing platform Kwai shows him spotting his daughter leaning on the windowsill next to their bed and clearly fixated on something in the distance.
The cheeky girl stares into the distance, and Mr Deng pans to reveal a TV in a ground-floor flat across the street, which he says is 60 metres (200 feet) away.
Mr Deng told Asia Wire: “Yuqian loves watching TV, so to protect her eyes, her mum and I decided to restrict her cartoon time.
“One Saturday, I asked whether she wanted to go out and play, but I noticed she was ignoring me.
“I asked her what she was doing on the windowsill looking outside. I couldn’t see anything.
“Then she said: ‘Dad, cartoon!’
“I took a closer look and realised she was watching her favourite show Super Wings, which was playing on a TV in a ground-floor home across the street.
“She looked so happy, because we didn’t let her watch TV. She didn’t move for an hour and a half.
“She eventually stopped. Not because she wanted to, but because it got dark and the owner across the street drew her curtains.”
Mr Deng said Yuqian could see everything playing on the distant TV, and told him what was happening with her favourite cartoon characters.
Many social media users, who have commented in their hundreds of thousands, admitted they used to do the same when their parents banned them from watching TV.
‘Heyi Liwei’ wrote on Weibo – China’s Twitter equivalent: ‘Her eyesight seems great!”
‘Meiruo Tianxian’ added: “This proves how important good eyesight is.”
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