‘Racist, Pornographic’ Pictures In Chinese School Textbooks Causes Furor Among Public

Chinese public expressed their disapproval towards a state-owned publisher claiming that their children’s books used illustration which were ugly, pornographic and racist.

The Chinese education ministry, according to a Bloomberg report, ordered the publisher to change the illustrations in its primary school textbooks. The People’s Education Press asked the publisher to ‘rectify and reform’ the publications. It gave time till the fall season semester before which they should be reviewed and approved by the ministry.

The Chinese public raised issues saying that the illustrations were racist because there were illustrations featuring faces with small eyes set wide apart. In some images, boys appear to be shown with outlines of male genitalia on their pants, users claimed on China’s Twitter-like social media outlet Weibo. It was one of the top trending items on China’s Twitter-like Weibo social-media platform since last week.

The hashtag related to the issue has been viewed and commented upon more than several million times. As of Friday last week, a hashtag on the subject was viewed more than 2.2 billion times.

“There are traitors hidden somewhere — pro-US elements who have permeated our educational system,” a Weibo-user commented on one of the posts related to the incident.

There were also children depicted wearing clothing with stars and stripes on them, which led people to say that the depictions were pro-US.

The People’s Education Press told the publishers to ‘adhere to the right political direction and value orientation, promote outstanding Chinese culture, and conform to the aesthetic tastes of the general public’ while ordering a thorough inspection.

“A special working group is set up to select quality designers to replace all illustrations in these textbooks, initiate a thorough inspection of other teaching materials and listen to parents’ and teachers’ advice,” the publisher under fire said in a statement while adding that they feel ‘a deep sense of guilt’ for publishing the math textbooks with the so-called ‘racist’ illustrations.

“We humbly adopted the good opinions and suggestions from all walks of life,” the People’s Education Press also said.

(with inputs from Bloomberg News)

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