A home-filmed video showing a four-year-old Chinese boy being forced by his parents to run almost naked through the snow in bitterly cold New York has gone viral and sparked an online uproar.

In the video, the little boy runs towards his father, who is filming him, in thick snow with only his shoes and underpants on, at times crying bitterly and pleading with his dad to take him in his arms.

The film -- posted online by his father, who comes from the eastern city of Nanjing -- has been viewed by tens of thousands of people on various video sharing websites and has caused outrage.

Chinese reporters who managed to interview the father found out the family was on holiday in New York during the Lunar New Year holiday last month when the video was shot, and the temperature was -13 degrees Celsius (nine degrees Fahrenheit).
China's one-child policy has created a generation of only children widely viewed as spoiled.

At the same time, kids are increasingly being forced by their parents to study hard at the expense of leisure activities to succeed in an increasingly competitive job market.