JIANGXI, CHINA — A video of a student who is from the first grade in school from southeastern China has gone viral on Chinese social media after the boy gave an impassioned monologue about his "fierce tiger" mother's temper and parenting style.

Social media users have praised the boy for his "logical thinking and eloquence" at such a young age, as well as admiring his mother when in a subsequent video, she acknowledged the need to keep her temper under control.

The boy's age was not stated but in China, most students start first grade at six years old. The family lives in the city of Yichun in Jiangxi province.

The video was originally posted on short-form video platform Douyin last Tuesday (Feb 14) by the boy's mother, who goes by the username "小宥妈咪" or "Xiaoyou mummy".

She told media outlet Star Video that her son became agitated after she rushed him to finish his dinner as it was nearly bedtime.

The video, which runs for more than two minutes, begins with a clip of the boy standing by the dinner table where several workbooks are spread out, still holding onto his chopsticks.

He laments: "Listening to you getting angry over the most trivial things, I don't even know what you're trying to do.

"When I grow up, I want to make you feel the emotions I'm feeling right now."

He adds that his mother is "like a fierce tiger" towards him, blowing up at just the slightest bit of provocation. He is simply "enduring" her ferocity until he grows up, he said.

It is not clear if the boy was familiar with the term "tiger mother", which was popularised in the United States with the publication of a 2011 memoir: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua.

It broadly refers to a mum in Chinese culture who is heavily invested in her child's success and is also adapted sometimes to "tiger parenting" to refer to both parents.

After declaring his mum to be a fierce tiger, the boy then gets up to stand on a chair, crowing: "Wait till I grow up, when I'm taller than you... Wait till I become an astronaut in the future, I will teach you a good lesson."

A woman's voice, believed to be the mother, then asked: "How would you do that?"

The boy replied: "I will let you feel... how strict your demands of me were when I was young."

In a separate clip, as the boy gets up to clear his bowl and chopsticks, he asks if his mother would treat her female colleagues the same way if they provoked her at work.

"Would you also be fierce towards your boss?" he asks. "Would you also be fierce towards the highest-ranking person in your company?"

Seated again, he calmly tells his mother: "Your heart is my heart. When you get angry, you blow up at me — you have to sincerely think about how that makes me feel."

He does not show his hurt feelings, he said, because the more he cries, the more fierce and relentless she becomes.

"It's always like that," he says simply. "No matter if you tell me a hundred times, a thousand times or ten thousand times, I won't listen to you.

"Why? Because your attitude has affected my heart. My heart has already been broken."

'I HAVE THOUGHTS, I HAVE FEELINGS'

He concludes: "I don't want to feel wronged. I don't want to be a target of your anger. (You) sound like a wild beast.

"I'm not a trash person. I'm not to be treated like an ant, an insignificant person.

"I have thoughts. I have feelings."

The original Douyin video received 74,000 views and has since been edited and reposted across many different social media platforms.

On microblogging site Weibo, the incident has been viewed 294,000 times under the hashtag #一年级的儿子给妈妈上了一课# or "Son in first grade teaches mother a lesson".

Viewers were both amused and impressed by the boy's composed speech and rational thinking despite his tender years.

A top comment on Douyin went: "This child surely has no problem writing essays." 

Another joked: "Be careful, when he becomes an astronaut, he will launch you to Mars to retire!"

For fellow parents, though, the young boy's speech hit a sore spot and gave them pause to reflect on their own parenting styles.

One heartbroken parent wrote on Douyin: "My tears fell as I listened to this. I feel that my son also has such feelings in his heart, but does not voice them."

The boy's mother agreed in an online response: "Every sentence stabs at (the) heart. Parents still have to change their own mentality, slow down and grow slowly."

Similarly, the top comment on Douyin urged: "Mum, you should pay attention. Don't take it as a joke. This is the child's true voice."

Some people took pity on the mother, saying: "Being parents in this generation is too difficult.

"On one hand, you have to fight against the trauma from your own family. On the other, you have to deal with this eloquent next generation.

"Mums' hearts have also been broken."

On another online platform Bilibili, users shared their own struggles with learning how to be a "good parent" in spite of their own inter-generational "trauma".

MUM ADMITS SHE MUST 'CORRECT' HER TEMPER

The boy's mother addressed the incident in a follow-up video posted last Thursday, writing in a caption that her son is growing up in a "democratic, healthy and loving environment".

"(He) is a confident and sunny boy", she added. "Thank you everyone for your concern.

"Regarding the problem of 'blowing up', (I) have always been aware of it, but simply have difficulty controlling it. In future, I must definitely correct it."

In this follow-up video, again recorded over the dinner table, the mother-son duo go head-to-head on the issue of his studies.

While the boy agrees that his mother does not blow up at him all the time, she does so "especially when (he is) studying and doesn't know how to answer a question".

He then questions why she is always anxious and "in a rush" about his studies, likening her behaviour to being upset about a train that stopped in front of her but then left without letting her board.

"You may be angry, but does it mean you will never take this train again?" he asked, indicating that there is no value in getting angry or rushing and that he will work on his studies in his own time.

The two then reach an agreement to let the boy manage his own time, with the mother specifying that her one request is for him to have adequate sleep.

"Okay, reached consensus," she declares as he puts down his chopsticks and offers his mum a high-five.

Since then, the new arrangement appears to be working well.

Recent posts on the account "Xiaoyou mummy" included photos of an award certificate and a "homework report" video taken by the boy, in which he recites a series of passages to a homework grading application — steadfastly continuing even after he burps midway through it.

The mother wrote in the video caption: "Before getting off work, I received a homework report (from my son). I was so amused by that 'burp' sound, all (my) troubles disappeared."