Parents and children at a Chinese kindergarten were given a welcome treat to mark the start of school in September—but it wasn’t quite what they expected.
At Xinshahui Kindergarten in Bao’an District, Shenzhen, kids and their parents were shown performances of various dance forms including jazz and traditional Chinese dances.
But one spectacle left them unamused: a pole dance right on the school grounds, reported Southern Metropolitan Daily via BBC. Parents who did not appreciate the show took their complaints to the police, the media and the internet.
One parent, American journalist Michael Standaert, shared a video of the performance along with his outrage.
The footage shows a woman in black shorts and a top showing her midriff as she spins around the pole.
“Who would think this is a good idea? We’re trying to pull the kids out of the school and get our tuition back,” he said. “They wouldn’t give us the number of the company that owns the school, but looking into that.”
https://twitter.com/mstandaert/status/1036465874826219520
He also noted that the dance took place on the flagpole which bore the country’s flag.
“For a kindergarten to host a pole dancer in its opening ceremony shows the taste and the emotional intelligence of the teachers,” said one parent on WeChat, as per BBC.
The kindergarten has since issued an apology. “There was a lack of comprehensive consideration of the contents of the performance,” it said in a statement to media.
Principal Lai Rong told state-run news site thepaper.cn that she had only hoped that children would learn different types of dances to promote dance training. She reasoned that children would be amazed to see someone flying on a pole and that the woman hired is a professional dance teacher.
Bao’an Education Bureau has ordered her dismissal and an investigation into the school. Niña V. Guno /ra
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