GUILIN - A video of a man who decided to dress as a woman for 20 years to help his mentally ill mother cope with the death of his sister has gone viral in China.

The man, who is in his 50s and hails from Guilin in the Guangxi region, is shown wearing a cheongsam as he tends to his elderly mother.

The 90-second clip put up by Pear Video on social media platform Weibo has since racked up over 4.3 million views.

It was also shared widely on major news websites in China.

After the man's mother began to show signs of mental illness when her daughter died, he began dressing as a woman and has been doing so ever since.

He shared that his mother was immediately convinced that her daughter had come back.

"She was so happy, so I kept doing it...I don't own any men's clothing," he explained, adding that he was not concerned by what others think as he was doing it for his mother.

His mother can be heard in the video referring to him as her daughter. "When my other daughter died she became my daughter," she added.



The pair have no other family members. The man, who is single, earns money by playing a flute. PHOTO: PEAR VIDEO



Many netizens were moved by the man's actions, hailing him as a "filial son".

"This is a real man," wrote one Weibo user, while another commented that he looked pretty as a woman.