There's a scene in the mainland Chinese drama series (set 1979–92) I've been watching, where the teacher's son (now a post-grad student) gives money to his textile factory worker mother after her redundancy.
He also says that his younger sister (who's now a teacher) doesn't earn much, so she can contribute later when her pay goes up.
So he's doing his own filial piety duty, as well as expecting his sister to do hers when she can afford to.
The mother adamantly refuses to take the son's money, but still smiles contentedly when she's by herself at the back of the house, so she's obviously pleased, and touched, by the gesture.
This is the point behind a lot of the Chinese practice of the children giving the parents household allowance or pocket money: that it's the gesture, not the actual money per se. It's the children demonstrating their filial piety.
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