DgcityThe Tibetan boy whose journey from a remote pastoral area to a Beijing children’s hospital captivated Chinese social media is settling into treatment, while his father learns to make short videos and run livestreams in hopes of building a future for the family. The three-year-old, Xirao Duoji, has been undergoing examinations ahead of free surgery to repair a severe cleft lip and palate.
His story began when a traveler spotted him last month near Xigaze in southern Tibet, filmed the boy’s condition and posted an appeal online. Within hours, the head of Beijing’s Yanran Angel Children’s Hospital replied in the comments: treatment would be provided entirely free of charge. The traveler then coordinated with village officials and police, escorted the family from the pastoral area to Lhasa, and paid for their flights to Beijing.
Duoji’s father, a herder, admitted his first reaction was disbelief. He had taken his son to Xigaze eight times over the years seeking treatment without success, and when a call came promising free surgery in Beijing while he was out tending sheep, he assumed it was a scam. Only after village cadres verified the offer did the family agree to travel. Their first wish once the boy recovers, he said, is to see Tiananmen Square, a place the children know from school textbooks.
The hospital, co-founded by actor Li Yapeng and his foundation, has treated thousands of cleft patients over nearly two decades, including hundreds in Tibet, where high altitude, limited prenatal care and diet have made the condition relatively common in pastoral regions. Cleft repair surgery is routine in modern medicine but often out of financial reach for rural families without help.
Staff say Duoji was timid at first but has relaxed with toys and gentle care. His father’s video lessons, hospital leaders hope, will let the family share life on the plateau and earn an income once they return home.
Online attention has been a double-edged resource for the family. Donations and offers of help poured in within days, but hospital staff have also had to manage crowds of self-described well-wishers and content creators hoping to film the boy. Doctors say cleft lip and palate affects roughly one in several hundred births worldwide, though rates run higher in some high-altitude regions, and that early surgery followed by speech therapy usually lets children eat, speak and develop normally. The family has asked that treatment, rather than the camera, set the rhythm of their days in Beijing.
