Video footage of a home-alone five-year-old girl in China repeatedly calling out “mama” as she searches for her mother who is at work many miles away, has tugged on the heartstrings of at least 70 million people on mainland social media.

In the distressing clip from a surveillance camera at a home in Zhoukou, central Henan province, the girl appears to be on her own as she wanders around the courtyard.

She calls out “mama” several times and turns in every direction hoping to find her. The little girl then sits on a stool looking dejected and tries calling out again.

The mother, surnamed Gu, is a migrant worker who has a job in the city to which she had just returned after a week spent with her daughter during China’s National Day Holiday.

After watching the little girl via the surveillance set-up and seeing her so sad, Gu decided to drive 10 hours through the night to return to her daughter.

“She called me again and again. It made me very heartbroken. So I drove back home on the evening of that day,” Gu said.

She said she would stay at home with her daughter for the foreseeable future and had no intention of taking a job so far away from their hometown again.

The whereabouts of the girl’s father are not clear leading to the girl to be considered as one of the country’s “left-behind” children, defined as those under 16 whose parents have moved away for work or are absent for other reasons.

Official statistics from 2020 revealed there were about 13 million left-behind children at that time. But some independent estimates put the real figure at closer to 70 million for households where one or both parents live away.

The video went viral on social media after being viewed 70 million times on Weibo alone.

Stories of children’s separation from their migrant worker parents regularly attract sympathy from the mainland public.

Last year, a young boy, who lived with his grandparents in the eastern province of Anhui while his parents work in Shanghai, was filmed being told his mother was returning to work. The distraught child grabs his mother’s clothes and refuses to let her go.

“After having my own baby, I cry when seeing this kind of video about a little child,” wrote one online observer.

“Children do not care about poverty or wealth. Their world is just about their mum and dad,” said another.

 - SCMP