Content Warning: The following content may contain verbal and/or visual references to suicide and/or self harm. If you or someone you know is suicidal, please seek assistance with your local suicide intervention group:
https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines
Chinese actor, Ma Tianyu (马天宇), was a guest on the ninth episode of “Youth Periplous 3” (青春环游记3). In one segment, Ma Tianyu brought everyone to tears when he started talking about his mother’s passing when he was a child.
Ma Tianyu recounted how he lost his mother at 5 years old. He said, “If I didn’t want to eat that piece of chocolate so bad at the time, maybe I would be a child with a mother.” His mother was sick at the time and due to the unbearable stress, she gave money to Ma Tianyu to help her buy sleeping pills to commit suicide. Ma Tianyu said, “So I bought it, then she told me to take the rest of the money to buy a box of chocolate.”
Everyone else was already getting emotional or on the verge of tears. However, what was even more shocking was when Ma Tianyu revealed that his mother had tried to commit suicide with him. Ma Tianyu was also fed sleeping pills by his mother, but when he woke up, her body was cold; she had already passed away. That day was also Mid-Autumn Festival and he remembered someone had even gifted them mooncakes, which is why he doesn’t celebrate the holiday anymore.
After Ma Tianyu’s mother passed away, his father left the family with an enormous amount of debt. Ma Tianyu and his two older sisters were left to be raised by his grandparents. He quit school at a young age to help support the family and moved to Beijing at 16 for better opportunities, which led him to joining the entertainment industry.