China School That Was Teaching Women Obedience Shuts Down

A school in China that specialized in educating women on how to be “obedient” was closed for violating the socialist core values, BBC reported. The school was where husbands and employers would send their wives to learn to exhibit what they considered “traditional values”

The school was set up by a Kang Jinsheng, who was in jail for murder until 2009 after he stabbed his teacher and killed a member of his gang. Two years after his release, he launched the Fushun Traditional Values Association and began offering the obedience classes for women. Three more locations opened up later.

Video from the Fushun school surfaced last week on a website called Video Pear, which showed footage of women crying and apologizing for “wrongful deeds,” the South China Morning Post reported. The school allegedly offered classes where women could learn “virtue” through completing chores under the supervision of tutors for eight hours a day. Women were also told to talk less, to suppress their career ambitions, and to obey their husbands, fathers, and sons.

In addition to these behaviors, the school told women that they should never argue or divorce their husbands and that if they had sex with too many men they could die as a result.

Authorities shut the school down after the videos surfaced and now those same authorities are looking for other schools that fit the same criteria. The association was approved by the government but it was never approved as a place for education.

After the video appeared online so did a notice on the Fushun education bureau online account that said schools like the obedience school would be stopped for violating the values of socialism. But employees are of the opinion that the video does not represent the school accurately. One told the Global Times that the school simply teaches traditional culture and that those who attended classes there, which are free, were “grateful” to the institution.

Gender equality is emphasized in China as a cultural value. China's 1954 Constitution stated that men and women should have equal rights.