Chinese officials punished over ‘problematic’ maths textbook illustrations
- State-owned publisher’s editor-in-chief and two other officials sacked and another 24 have been punished, education ministry says
- People’s Education Press apologised in May after complaints that the illustrations were sexually and ideologically inappropriate
Following an investigation, Guo Ge, editor-in-chief of state-owned People’s Education Press – the biggest textbook publisher in mainland China – was removed from his post, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Two other officials who handled mathematics texts were sacked and a further 17 officials from the publisher and five from the ministry were given party disciplinary punishments.
It comes after People’s Education Press apologised in May following criticism on social media that the illustrations in the textbooks were “ugly” and “sexually suggestive”.
Complaints included that the characters in the textbooks were given small eyes that some commenters perceived as racist, that they appeared to show children’s genitals, and that some characters wore clothes patterned with stars and stripes, reflecting Western influences.
In Monday’s statement, the ministry said the textbook illustrations were “problematic” and “not uplifting” and that they fell short of the “basic requirements of moral education”.
