The Lunar New Year is a holiday that many Chinese look forward to, except perhaps gays and lesbians who are pressured to get married and give their parents a grandchild.

To help Chinese families understand and accept the different sexual orientation of a son who is gay or a daughter who is lesbian, the Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) released a video about coming out and coming home, with the Lunar New Year as backdrop.

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The seven-minute video has gone viral with more than 108 million clicks on the website qq.com, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Titled "Coming Home - Celebrating Chinese New Year" or "Huijia" in Chinese, the short but poignant film showed the parents get angry when their only child comes out and admits he prefers men to women.

He is told not to come home anymore for future Lunar New Year celebrations, which he followed. However, after years, the parents finally accepted their son for who he is and asks him to join them again for the 2015 Lunar New Year.

In releasing the video, Hu Zhijun, cofounder of PFLAG in China, said he hopes that the short film will help young Chinese gays deal with parental pressure when it comes to marrying against their will.

The storyline is quite familiar to many gay Chinese, such as Frank of Shanghai, who came out to his parents more than 10 years ago. In 2014, his father gave him an ultimatum to get married or don't go home anymore for future Lunar New Year celebrations.

However, in a twist that many gay westerners also resort to, Frank agreed to marry a lesbian in a marriage of convenience to finally put a stop to parental badgering.

Hu said that production of the video, which cost US$1,600 and was funded by online donations, aims to increase awareness among Chinese of homosexuality since it is still a common belief that being gay is an ailment which needs treatment or "just a lifestyle that people can choose to change."

TagsLunar New Year, same-sex, Huijia