Siu Yau-wai (right) and his grandmother Chow Siu-shuen (left) in Shenzhen on Saturday.The intrigue continues around Siu Yau-wai. The 12-year-old boy who has spent the last nine years in Hong Kong without legal documents, has been found to have a hukou, one of the forms of identification on the mainland. Local media also discovered that he came to Hong Kong on a two-way permit with his real identification nine years ago.
But when Chow Siu-shuen turned to unionist lawmaker Chan Yuen-han for help last month, she claimed that Yau-wai didn't have a hukou and he had to come to Hong Kong on a fake two-way permit.
Chow had previously told the media that she had lost contact with her daughter, Yau-wai's 36-year-old mother Wu Chuyan. But on Sunday, she said that she called her last month, asking her to take the boy back. "She kept scolding me in a way almost as if she wanted me dead," Chow said.
"She said she did not want to take her boy back, and I should just push him down a hill or into the sea." Chow had earlier said that she had lost contact with her daughter for years.
Chow said Yau-wai was abandoned because his father, Xiao Huihong, lost four fingers in an accident and the parents couldn't afford to raise him. Yau-wai's father has told Chinese media that he still can't afford to look after the boy.
But local media spoke to one of Xiao's neighbours in Maobei village in Shantou, Guangdong, at the weekend. The neighbour claimed Xiao had converted his one-storey house into three-storeys around 10 years ago, and therefore doubted that the family had given the boy up for financial reasons.