Man Wants His Daughter's Child To Use His Surname As He Provides For Her Family

A grandfather from China has demanded that his granddaughter start using his surname since he provides for his daughter's family.

The man's daughter, who hails from Shanghai in eastern China, approached a local family conflict resolution program on July 16 to complain about her father's demand, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

"I have recently been hounded to death by my father," the woman, whose identity was not disclosed to protect her privacy, told a mediator in the program, according to the outlet.

The woman then claimed that it is impossible for her child to change her surname now because she is already 10. "My child is already 10 years old, but my father insists on changing her surname to his, or he claims he will die," she explained.

The woman went on to share that she and her family of three rely on her father for their food and housing. "My father feels exploited as his granddaughter does not have his surname," she said.

Chinese law allows children to adopt surnames from their maternal sides, and there are many known cases of high-profile Chinese households following this practice. For example, Meng Wanzhou, heir to the Chinese multinational technology company Huawei, and her younger half-sister, Annabel Yao, use the surnames of their mothers instead of that of their father, Ren Zhengfei, the founder and CEO of the tech giant.

Wang Xuming, a former president of a local district court in Shanghai, told the SCMP that the first thing that is taken into consideration while permitting children to pick up a surname from their maternal side is family unity. "When parents choose surnames for their children, we primarily consider family harmony so that there is no conflict in the families," Wang told the outlet.

In 2016, China implemented a rule of law under which parents were mandated to have at least two children as a way of curbing the low birthrate. In its wake, a huge number of families resorted to the practice of letting the firstborn use the father's surname and letting the second child have the mother's.

Moreover, the increasingly common practice of making babies use their moms' surnames has been observed in the country in recent years as some of its citizens try to distance themselves from age-old norms that are deemed patriarchal. In 2019 alone, 8.8% of the 90,000 babies born in Shanghai were given their mothers' surnames, according to SCMP.