A Hong Kong family has won the hearts of millions after sharing their unique album online.
The annual family pictures, taken in the space of 10 years, feature the bespectacled father Wong Ting-man holding his daughter Tiffany while lying on a sofa with the same cat and dog beside them.
When the first picture was taken in 2008, Tiffany was just a newborn and Mr Wong held her with one arm; and in the latest picture, she has grown into a 10-year-old girl snuggling up to her 49-year-old father.
The 2008 picture shows Wong Ting-man, then 39 years old, holding his newborn daughter next to his pets in Hong Kong
The 2018 picture shows the father, 49, posing for the same picture with his daughter, 10, in their home a decade later
The ageing father and growing daughter captured by the two pictures have tugged at the heartstrings of the online users, who say they are touched by the set.
On Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter, the discussion has become a trending topic and the pictures have attracted more than 7,080,000 views.
One user, known as ‘Moon_yaunong’, wrote: ‘It’s amazing to see how people and animals have changed over the years. This family is very lovely.’
While another commentator ‘MAGcongwu’ said: ‘It’s most heartwarming when you have someone or some pets to stay with you when you grow old.’
Mr Wong said his daughter, Tiffany, found the first picture ‘cute’ and asked to have another one taken in 2013 (pictured)
From then on, the pair have one photo taken every year on the same sofa with the same pets in similar positions. Mr Wong said it is a good way for them to keep family memories. The above pictures were taken in 2014 (left) and 2015 (right)
Some people have started posting their own family pictures taken in 2008 and 2018 under the popular thread.
The Hong Kong father, Wong Ting-man, said the very first picture was taken by his wife, Grace, who had just come out from the shower and said the composition of him, his daughter and their pets was ‘funny’.
‘I was very tired. I had probably just changed my daughter’s nappy, and was taking rest on the sofa. She was just sleeping by my side.
‘And all of a sudden, my pets came up to the sofa and I couldn’t move an inch,’ Mr Wong, a documentary producer, told MailOnline.
Mr Wong’s wife has taken seven picture of them in the past 10 years. There is a hiatus from 2009 and 2012.
The family only started the annual photography tradition when Mr Wong’s daughter noticed the original picture in 2013 and found it ‘cute’. The girl, then five years old, asked to have a picture taken in the same position.
From then on, the family started taking one photo every year.
‘It’s not something special, but they will be good memories when we looked back in 10 or 20 years,’ Mr Wong said.
Web users are surprised by the fact that the pets can hold the same pose in all pictures. The above picture was taken in 2016
Mr Wong hopes people could see the real meaning behind his family pictures. The above picture was taken in 2017
Speaking about the huge online popularity, Mr Wong said he was happy to see that people like the pictures and that some families have started sharing their own family photos.
But he said ‘it would be better if they also understand the meaning behind these pictures’.
Mr Wong said many Chinese families would abandon their pets when a woman in the house gets pregnant due to ‘hygienic reasons’, but he wanted his photos to prove the point wrong.
He stressed that many pets would get abandoned or sent to animal rescue centres and vets as the owners fear their fur or the faeces would pose health problems to the mother and the babies.
‘We have at least two pets throughout my wife’s pregnancy and 10 years past, my daughter has never been admitted into hospital once,’ said Mr Wong.
All pictures were taken by Mr Wong’s wife, Grace. Mr Wong, his wife Grace and his daughter Tiffany are pictured in Hong Kong Central district (left). Grace and Tiffany are pictured visiting an animation exhibition in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay (right)
Mr Wong decided to keep his pets when his 38-year-old wife got pregnant.
‘My father-in-law and my mother told me that I should think about how to handle these animals, but I just ignored them,’ he said.
Both pets were rescued by Mr Wong from a local veterinary clinic.
Mr Wong said his 13-year-old long-haired dachshund often gets up on his legs like a ‘worm’ and sleeps on him whenever he puts his legs on a stool.
His 14-year-old cat, called ‘left thigh’, had had its left back limb amputated due to injuries when Mr Wong brought it home.
‘Because of its disabilities, it often sits at the sofa ledge and asks me to scratch his back on the left,’ he said.
Mr Wong encourage families with pregnant women to keep their pets, and hopes his pictures can be a good example to those who need to make a decision on the matter.