Christmas linked to China’s past humiliation by foreign invaders in speech to primary schoolchildren
- Festival a ‘burning shame’ to Chinese people, principal tells pupils
- Public disagrees, forcing post praising the speech off social media within 24 hours
A speech to primary schoolchildren linking Christmas with China’s invasion by foreign powers more than a century ago has backfired, fuelling public anger against recent official moves to boycott the festival.
Dong Xuefeng, head of the Huangwei Township Central School in Sixian County, Anhui province, told a school gathering on Monday that Christmas was a disgrace to the Chinese people because of past humiliations inflicted on the nation by mostly Christian invaders.
The county’s publicity bureau issued a transcript of Dong’s speech on the microblogging service Weibo on Tuesday, but deleted it on Wednesday morning, after it went viral overnight.
“Do you know where all this Christmas, Christmas Eve and carnival stuff comes from? It has brought a burning shame to Chinese people,” Dong said, before asking the children to refuse to take part in Christmas celebrations.
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According to the deleted Weibo post, Dong’s speech went on to give a lesson on China’s past humiliation by Westerners, beginning with the burning of the Old Summer Palace and looting of national treasures by Anglo-French troops in 1860.