Asian and Taiwan Culture: Asian respect for parents

You know Taiwanese will do anything their parents say, and you get a little used to it over time. Still, the depth sometimes manages to surprise.
I was watching the news with the wife. I was picking up bits of one of the stories. It was Chinese New Year and so a woman, who had been thrown out of the family home by her mother-in-law, had invited the media to go along with her and bang on the door of her husband's family's home, hopefully to get herself and son let back in. Unfortunately, even Taiwan's persistent media couldn't get her access.
“The kid had a sign around his neck: ‘Ba Ba Huei Jia (Father I’m Coming Home)’ – but still the mother-in-law wouldn’t let her in the house. She has nowhere to stay,” I said to the wife. “I don’t get it - where is the father? In China...army, jail, or something?”
“Watching TV,” replied the wife. “His mother won’t let him recognize his son...So unfortunate.”
For the rest of the day I could be seen shaking my head sporadically bursting out with - ‘And how does the father accept this?’