A teacher at a vocational college in Shanghai was fired on Thursday for saying in class that casualties in the notorious Nanjing Massacre are not supported by real data but are only a folk rumor, which triggered public outrage on the Chinese social media platform.
On Thursday night, Shanghai Aurora College said in a statement that Song Gengyi, the teacher who made the wrong remarks, has been fired according to the college’s regulations, as these remarks caused a major teaching incident and serious adverse social impact.
The college also vowed to further maintain political discipline and enforce its code of conduct in class, and implement zero tolerance for violations of law and discipline.
The punishment came after a video showing Song making wrong remarks on the Nanjing Massacre during her lecture went viral on Tuesday, just one day after China held nationwide commemoration for the victims of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre. Her comments immediately drew a fierce backlash on the internet.
The video shows Song saying in a college classroom that the 300,000 victims of the Nanjing Massacre during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) were just a compiled overview of Chinese historical novels, since the victims’ specific identities were not all recorded.
“No matter how we publicize domestically how many people died during the Nanjing Massacre, it could just be a folk tale without historical evidence,” Song said in the video, adding that reflection of the war instead of hatred should be encouraged.
The remarks immediately drew fierce criticism on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo with many netizens condemning Song’s remarks which attempted to distort history.
The college launched an investigation into the incident on Wednesday night.
The People’s Daily commented on its Sina Weibo account that by groundlessly speculating and questioning the truth of history, Song does not deserve to teach others, and by ignoring the immense suffering and failing to condemn the evil deeds of other countries, she does not deserve to be a Chinese. Such a person lacking in both knowledge and morality doesn’t deserve to educate the younger generation.
The college released a statement on Wednesday evening saying that it immediately launched an investigation into the incident concerning the teacher’s inappropriate remarks and will handle the issue seriously in accordance with regulations and disciplines.
A teacher from the same school of the college where Song works reached by the Global Times on Thursday said that she thought it was incredible for Song to make such remarks. The teacher, also surnamed Song said that her life has been disturbed by the incident since she is also surnamed Song and received numerous phone calls and messages about the issue on Thursday.
The Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre in Nanjing, capital of East China’s Jiangsu Province also posted on its Sina Weibo account on Wednesday evening the verdict of Hisao Tani, one of the major Japanese war criminals of the massacre made by the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal on March 10, 1947.
In the verdict, Tani confessed that Japanese invaders collectedly killed more than 190,000 civilians and soldiers in Nanjing. Besides, other sporadically killed civilians and soldiers whose bodies were collected and buried by charity institutions amounted to 150,000. This makes the total number of victims amount to over 300,000.
The figures were confirmed by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal.
The Memorial Hall wrote on Sina Weibo that, “Here is supporting historical data, the irrefutable evidence.”
Many netizens criticized that Song’s questioning over the Nanjing Massacre is not just inappropriate but a person who makes such remarks is unfit for teaching as well. Other netizens wrote the teacher should be severely punished for her misconduct and the teacher community in China needs to be strictly supervised.
Influenced by the incident, Wuhan University in Central China’s Hubei Province trended on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo as the hottest topic on Thursday morning with the hashtag “Wuhan University” viewed over 380 million times and left with 143,000 comments, after Chinese netizens found out that Song graduated from the university’s School of Journalism and Communication.
While many netizens criticized that the university had trained such a graduate other expressed their sympathy toward the university which was negatively affected.
China’s national flag flies at half mast ahead of the national memorial ceremony for the Nanjing Massacre victims at the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province, December 13, 2021.Photo:Xinhua
