Girls taught prejudice in 'feudal' class

Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, has put a stop to a training course dedicated to so-called feminine virtues, after online videos aroused widespread condemnation of the presented ideas as being damaging to girls.

The videos showed girls ages 5 to 18 in Wencheng county taking classes on "feminine virtues" during a summer camp in August. The classes taught "women are inferior to men in social status", "domestic violence should be accepted" and "divorce is a nightmare for women".

The videos stirred heated discussions on gender equality and elicited condemnation for their outdated concept, prompting local authorities to launch an investigation.

The summer camp was conducted by the Wenzhou traditional culture promotion association, a nongovernmental organization, from Aug 10 to Aug 24, with some teachers brought in from Fushun, Liaoning province.

Similar classes previously triggered widespread condemnation and were banned by Fushun authorities because they spread values contrary to the law.

Jiang Xiuhua, a researcher at the Women's Studies Institute of China under the All-China Women's Federation, told China Daily on Tuesday that in recent years, such courses-under the umbrella of passing on Chinese culture-had emerged in different areas.

"Such courses, promoting feudal values of men and women, created a negative social impact by underestimating women's value and social status," she said. "The prevalence of these courses reflects the general public's poor awareness of gender equality, and weakens women's social vigor by limiting them to household roles."

She added that it is imperative to enhance people's capability of discerning traditional Chinese culture from such outdated modes of thought.

Her opinions were echoed by many.

"It's astonishing and unfortunate to see that such ideas still exist in certain areas. It's both the organizers and the parents who send their kids to such brainwashing courses that should be blamed," said a netizen.

An article posted on the Weibo account of People's Daily on Saturday said: "It's astounding to see that in modern society like today's China, there still exists such trumpeting of outdated gender discrimination drivel. Such classes will pollute girls' minds and impose deleterious effects on their futures."

"Never should we let such training organizations go unchecked," the article added.

Some, however, thought otherwise.

Gu Jie, a businessman in Shanghai and the father of two daughters, said he taught his older daughter feminine virtues since she was a toddler.

"I think females and males bear different responsibilities in households and society," he said. "As part of traditional Chinese culture, feminine virtues helped with China's stability over the past thousands of years."

"But my efforts were strongly opposed by my wife, and as time went by, my daughter gradually lost interest," he added.