M'sian Dad Goes Viral For Bringing His 25YO 'Chou Chou' To China In Honour Of His Grandma
Facebook user Andrew Chua's grandmother had given him the 'chou chou' as a child.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 03 Jan 2020, 12:20 PM
Almost everybody has grown up with a 'chou chou', aka 'bantal busuk', then lost it around their teenage years.
But not this Malaysian father.
In fact, Facebook user Andrew Chua still has his chou chou with him because of a deep, sentimental reason.
The tiny bolster was given to him by his late grandmother when he was a child, and he had named it his 'wife'. Now that he is a father, he still carries it around and admits that he cannot fall asleep without it.
In a Facebook post, Chua shared about the journeys he has gone through with his chou chou, including one where he brought it back to his grandmother's hometown in China
Chua related that his grandmother always wanted to visit her relatives in China, but she never had the money to do so.
Thus, Chua made his grandmother's dream come true by bringing his chou chou to Putian in eastern Fujian province in 2015.
"My Chinese relatives were surprised by my visit because I came suddenly and I brought my chou chou with me," Chua told SAYS.
Besides Putian, Chua revealed that his 'wife' has followed him to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia in the past 25 years too
Pictures of Chua's chou chou quickly went viral on Facebook, attaining over 2,300 shares at the time of writing.
While the chou chou serves as a memory of his grandmother, it also creates a lot of hilarious scenarios at home with his actual wife and one-year-old son
When asked whether his spouse ever got jealous of his love for his chou chou, Chua said she hated it.
"My wife never liked my chou chou and she does not let our son touch it," Chua told SAYS, adding that his son loves fondling his chou chou.He said that his wife has chou chous of her own too, but they are just plushies from Disney cartoon 'Chip n Dale'.
"I am not allowed to let my chou chou cross over her side of the bed, let alone get close to her 'Chip' plushies."
Three weeks ago, Chua's heart was broken into pieces when his son ripped his beloved bolster open
"My heart thought 'habis' (it's over), when my 25-year-old 'wife' was torn open by my son," Chua wrote in another Facebook post on 30 December 2019, which has garnered over 5,600 shares at the time of writing.
Chua said he begged his mother and his actual wife to help him sew it, but they said the chou chou was beyond saving
According to him, two of the most important women in his life encouraged him to throw it away instead.
"The pillowcase that houses my chou chou was in a very brittle state," Chua said.
Despite his mother and wife's advice, he brought his chou chou to a newly opened tailor shop near where he stays
"The boss was a nice person and seemed professional. He didn't mind that my 'wife' smells great either," Chua said.
He related that the tailor "upgraded" his 'wife' by adding a layer of cloth inside it, so he now calls his chou chou 'wife Mark II'.
After Chua's posts went viral, thousands of netizens have flocked to the comment section to leave stories about their chou chous
"The color of his pillow is too disgusting, is it?" one netizen remarked.
"I have one (chou chou) too. But it is still in great shape," an elated netizen commented.
A lot of netizens tagged their friends in the posts too, asking them if they want to join the bantal busuk group - which was created by Chua after gaining massive traction on his profile.
"You want to join the smelly, smelly, happy club?" one Facebook user asked his friend, to which the latter replied in jest, "No, I don't want. His pillow is too black."
"Your chou chou can join this group!" another netizen wrote.
The group has over 800 members currently. You can check it out here.
