A man checks in with a pile of pancake and pickles made by his mother at Lukou international airport in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province, on Feb. 2, 2017. (Screenshot Photo)
At Nanjing Lukou International Airport on Friday, one traveler's suitcase was found to be 15 kilograms overweight. When the man opened it, he discovered that his mother had added pancakes and home-made pickles, unbeknownst to him. He had to take the food out of the suitcase and carry it aboard the plane.
This one migrant worker's story has attracted the attention of millions of netizens across Chinese social media. Photos of the pancakes soon started to circulate online, and many people commented on goods the man's mother had given him, saying the pancakes represent "heavy love" from the man's mother.
Chinanews.com started a touching conversation topic on Sina Weibo called #suitcases packed with love# after the incident. As of Saturday afternoon, nearly 6,600 people had joined in the discussion and their posts have been read over 23 million times.
According to the online comments, the most common items that parents pack for their children include sausages and home-made steamed buns, reported Yangzi Evening News.
The report cited one comment about a friend who had a similar issue as the man with the overloaded suitcase in Nanjing, with food secretly stashed inside by loving parents.
The report also introduced the experience of the paper's own reporters as examples to explain how Chinese parents busily prepare delicious food for their children at home, and more food for them to carry away after Spring Festival.
China now has several hundred million migrant workers who can return home from the cities only on important national holidays like Spring Festival. However, these brief family reunions are hardly enough for those migrant workers and their parents. Preparing hometown snacks and home-made food seems like the only way the parents can express their love and care for their children working in distant cities.
