Chinese lecturer sorry for ‘woman’s best dowry is her virginity’ talk
Speech also criticised women for wearing revealing clothing, but Ding Xuan says she was just sharing her own experience and opinion
A woman who sparked outrage in China for saying in a lecture that “a woman’s best dowry is her virginity” and criticising women for wearing revealing clothing has issued a half-hearted apology.
Ding Xuan, 63, sought to clarify the comments in an interview with Beijing Times on Monday, saying she had just been sharing her own experience and opinion.
She added that she apologised if “what I said maybe had problems, or if I didn’t speak well”.
The lecture about “being a gentle and graceful woman in the modern era” was delivered at Jiujiang University in Jiangxi province on May 14, after Ding had given two similar talks elsewhere that morning.
Her lecture title used the Chinese for My Fair Lady, the film and musical based on a play by George Bernard Shaw about a professor who decides to educate a young flower seller about how to be “presentable” in high society.