Lonely Old Chinese Man Puts Himself Up For Adoption

Han Zicheng, an 85-year-old Chinese widower, decided in December that he did not want to spend his last days in a nursing home or die at his house alone. How to do that? By placing an ad in a flyer putting himself up for adoption. Han’s hope was that a friendly stranger or family would take him in and provide for him until he died. That never happened; instead he was taken to a nearby hospital in March by an acquaintance where he died with the friend by his side.

Traditionally, younger generations in China would take care of their elderly parents, but changing attitudes of the youth as well as the one-child-per-family rule have altered caretaker mindsets throughout the country.

See Ruth Brown, Lonely Old Man Puts Himself Up For Adoption, New York Post, May 4, 2018.