China education: school under fire after teacher tells girls to have a ‘clean heart and body’ and boys to be ‘real men’ and not effeminate
- A teacher who has a reputation for giving speeches about sexuality and purity is at the centre of a fresh controversy at a Beijing secondary school
- At one point the teacher told female students: ‘lust is the worst vice. Who is responsible for this sin? You are just ruining yourself’
A speech at a Beijing secondary school telling girls to have “a clean heart and a clean body”, while boys should curb their effeminate side has triggered controversy in China.
The speech was made by a female teacher surnamed Suo and was addressed to eighth grade students at Beijing Haidian Experimental Middle School, the Chutian Metropolis News reported.
Earlier this week the school released excerpts of Suo’s “growing-up classes” speech which was delivered to male and female students separately. For boys, the topic of her speech was to be the master of one’s fate and to be a real man; for girls, the topic was to cultivate a noble personality.
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“Girls, you should have dignity and cherish yourself. If you wear little clothes or short skirts on the street, by exposing arms, legs or even navels, boys will develop evil thoughts,” Suo said in front of hundreds of female students.
“Lust is the worst vice. Who is responsible for this sin? You are just ruining yourself,” she said.
Suo said girls should have a “cotton-like” character, work diligently, be quiet and spend less.
“Girls, you should act like cotton, clean and gentle, and keep yourself as pure as jade. You should have a clean heart and a clean body.”
Suo said a noble personality means to be respected and liked by others, according to the news report.
In a separate speech to male students, Suo said everyone was born with both masculine and feminine traits.
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“If you don’t behave yourself, your effeminate characters will be revealed; thus it will hamper your development,” she claimed.
It is not the first time that Suo has given moral lectures to female students. In 2018, she told girls to keep an ideal distance from a male at 0.75-1.5 metres and said the intimate distance between lovers is within 0.45 metres.
China’s social media has been outraged by Suo’s speech.
“I am shocked that this feudal rubbish is still spreading in the 21st century,” wrote one person on Weibo.
“Are girls taught to be the best version of themselves in this way?” asked another user.
“She said girls are responsible if boys have an evil thought. But isn’t that the one who commits the crime responsible?” a third comment read.
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However, some people supported Suo, with one internet user saying: “I think 99 per cent of the parents agree with this teacher. There’s nothing wrong with her.”
The school deleted the transcript of Suo’s speeches from its social media account just hours after publishing them due to the public backlash.
The education authority of Haidian District told the newspaper that it is aware of the incident and said it is communicating with the school.
In recent months mainland authorities have been implementing a crackdown on “sissy” and “effeminate” idols in the entertainment industry.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Education announced a plan to “cultivate masculinity” for boy students by having more physical education classes and increasing the number of male teachers.
