7-year-old delivery boy goes viral in China, prompting welfare concerns

A video of a seven-year-old boy delivering parcels in the city of Qingdao, China, has gone viral, prompting conversation about child poverty in the country.

The boy, Li Changjiang, who has been nicknamed "Little Li" on social media, first garnered the attention of Wang Qingwei, a schoolteacher, who took a photo of the boy when he was delivering parcels out of his delivery cart on a freezing winter day.

The teacher then uploaded the photo to messaging and social media app, WeChat.

Media company Pear Video later released a video in which they interviewed the boy and his guardian, which has been viewed more than 18 million times.

The video revealed that Little Li delivered up to 30 parcels a day and was raised by a deliveryman, Yan Shifang, who was a colleague and good friend of the boy’s father, now deceased. At some point Li’s mother remarried and lost contact.

The China Global Television Network (CGTN) reported that the boy has since been sent to a welfare centre and enrolled in school. Authorities have also reached out to his mother.

(Source: BBC News, Channel NewsAsia)