Sun Haiyang's village home mobbed by attention-seeking livestreamers. Photo: Screenshot from Weibo

Attention-seeking livestreamers rushed to Sun Haiyang's village home to take videos and photos after the man reunited with his son abducted 14 years ago and took him back to their hometown in Central China's Hubei on Tuesday.

Villagers gathered and set off firecrackers to welcome Sun's family back to Jianli. 

Numerous livestreamers were also present. They besieged Sun Haiyang's village home and stayed during the whole night.

In one video clip that went viral, a male livestreamer kept asking Sun Haiyang during the livestreaming if the livestreamers had bothered him and his family in the evening. 

After Sun said no, the livestreamer delightedly told the audience that Sun wasn't bothered that they were at his house. 

The hashtag "Sun Haiyang's village mobbed by livestreamers seeking attention and followers" has become a hot topic on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform, with more than 210 million views and comments as of press time.

"These livestreamers obviously harassed Sun's families. They don't care about the reunion, they just want to get enormous traffic!" said one netizen. "I suggest livestreaming platforms to shut down these accounts to punish the activities crossing the line for attracting attention and followers," commented another.

After years of searching and the joint efforts of public security departments across the nation, Sun Haiyang finally found his son who was abducted 14 years ago. Many Chinese people felt the warmth of witnessing their reunion moment in a reunion ceremony held in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, on Monday.

Global Times