China Orders Enquiry into Disturbing Illustrations in Elementary School Maths Textbook

A school textbook in China has caught people’s attention for its provocative content and for the wrong depiction of young children. 

The illustrations that have been found in a series of maths textbooks have gone viral on Chinese social media since Thursday. 

China’s education ministry has ordered the state owned publisher to rectify the textbook. 

Some pictures show children with small, drooping wide set eyes set on broad foreheads. Users found these photographs to be racists. 

People have found the drawings to have sexual connotations too. In one picture a boy is pulling a girl’s skirt and in another a girl’s inner wear has been exposed. 

The maths book published by ‘ People’s Education Press’ features pictures of children with leg tattoos and boys mishandling girls. 

Online users have said that the pics also suggest that they are “Pro American” as some of the children’s clothes have been designed with stars and stripes. 

These books are used in elementary schools across the country and what is surprising is that they’ve been used for over a decade. Many have expressed shock that such illustrations have gone unnoticed for years. 

The publisher in question, ‘People's Education Press’, is the country's biggest textbook publisher founded in 1950. 

A teacher in Qingpu district school in Shanghai posted several pictures online and said that the images failed to convey “the innocence, self-motivation and sunshine of Chinese children.”

An education writer Tang Jiafeng wrote on Chinese micro-blogging platform Weibo that he “felt shocked, disbelief, sad, and angry” about the maths book illustrations.

“Primary school textbooks are the foundation of the country and the nation, and an important guarantee for the formation of children’s outlook on life and values,” he wrote.

“It is impossible to overstate their importance.”

The education ministry said that it has launched a review of all elementary textbooks for its content and illustration. The review is “to ensure that the textbooks adhere to the correct political direction and value orientation, promote the excellent Chinese culture, and conform to the aesthetic habits of the public”.