The fathers' role in assisting the recovery of young Chinese diagnosed with anorexia nervosa has seldom been documented in Chinese contexts, namely Hong Kong and Shenzhen. In this article the author argues for the importance of engaging the absent Chinese father in helping in this context, describing the process of family treatment and highlighting the treatment principles and skills in achieving the goal of helping, illustrating it with two clinical cases from two Chinese cities, Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Practitioner points Engaging the absent father in treatment to join hands with his spouse is crucial to assist a young Chinese person with anorexia nervosa to recover. Translation of the young person's symptoms as a developmental challenge is clinically useful to achieve the goal of paternal engagement. Increased paternal involvement to mediate mother–daughter conflicts, raising the father's self‐confidence and improved marital relationships are clinically useful