The Chinese government has decided to punish 27 people over what
they believe are what they refer to tragically ugly illustrations in
elementary school math textbooks.
And upon reviewing the illustrations that they're referring to.
I am gonna agree with them actually.
So, let's give you some context on where the books came from and
why they're so problematic.
The mathematics books were published by the people's education press almost
10 years ago, which let's be clear wasn't that long ago.
And were reportedly used in elementary schools across the country.
But they went viral in May after it teacher published photos of
the illustrations inside including people with distorted faces and bulging pants.
Yes, you heard that correctly?
Bulging pants.
Boys pictured grabbing girls skirts and at least one child with an apparent
leg tattoo, which that last part, come on, who cares, right?
But here's an example.
Here's an example of what they cited as problematic.
You see, boys doing a little purple purple action on
that poor girl, [LAUGH] I don't know what else to say.
Everything is super uncomfortable to refer to, but there's that going on,
you got a boy lifting up another girl's skirt.
The idea that this was ever okay blows my mind.
And the fact that this book has been used in China for ten years and
it wasn't until now that someone raised concern over it,
like really does blow my mind and I haven't even shown you the worst.
Well, that's pretty bad, but it continues to get bad.
So let's take a look at another one.
There's a girl playing and her skirt is lifted.
You could see her underwear terrible.
Social media users were largely amused by the illustrations because of
course it's social media, but many also criticized them as bringing disrepute and
cultural annihilation to China, speculating and get a load of this.
They were the deliberate work of western infiltrators in the education sector.
I mean, look, there's a lot to criticize the west about, but
I guarantee you the west didn't infiltrate China to publish
questionable mathematics books to culturally annihilate China.
>> If they did, they really suck at this.
So, I'm gonna get back to cultural annihilation in a second.
And that's where the lake tattoo might be relevant.
But the main question I had about the story, was it just a guy trolling and
having fun and decided, hey, I'm gonna put these pervy things in books for
young kids, don't get me wrong, I don't excuse it.
I think it's terrible, right?
>> Yep.
>> And or was it in some ways an F you to the government?
So that is possible, Okay?
Now, the reason why I don't think that it's western powers and
now they have all sorts of theories, right?
They say the Chinese flag is backwards in one of the pictures.
>> Yeah, let's take a look at that image.
We have that example.
So, I mean, look, culturally China is different from the United States.
And so, I don't understand that being a big deal, but
maybe it is a big deal in China.
>> No, no, but
if you have an upside down American flag, it would be a big deal here, right?
So, I get it.
On the other hand, they say some of the clothes, the kids are arranged in red,
white and blue meaning America.
No, now you're getting crazy, like, first of all, red, white and
blue are incredibly common colors right now you're stretching.
Look now let's get back to, is the plot of the west.
What would it accomplish?
>> I don't know.
>> Honestly, like literally what would it accomplish?
Like, it would accomplish absolutely nothing if it's a plot of the west man,
are we wasting our money.
So, now, I lean on, I think it's a guy who is probably subversive and
he's doing it all the wrong ways why the light tattoo because Anna to you and
I like tattoos no big deal.
But for the government of China,
having a cartoon with a light tattoo is very subversive.
>> Very naughty, very, very unacceptable.
I hear what you're saying, they're different culturally.
I totally get it.
>> Yeah, and so that's why I lean towards, it's an F you to the government.
The backwards flag.
The leg tattoo is not just some random perv it's a guy who's trying to
embarrass the government.
And well, a lot of people did not take kindly to it.
I'm gonna read that full quote and then we'll talk about what the government did.
One user was outraged and said this is cultural annihilation of the country.
The awakening is too late and the cost of auditing crimes is too low.
>> Come on, relax.
>> So, a lot of people and that's because look,
when you get the core identity issues, people get super worked up.
And this instantly became a thing about Chinese pride and
there are literally like hundreds of millions of comments in the original post,
which is unbelievable, viewed billions of times.
>> Yeah, as usual.
And this is something that's also indicative of the United States and
how we react to certain stories and controversies.
I love how the concern isn't that, these images are sending
a certain message about young girls, two young students, right?
Like, I see this and that is my concern, right?
I wouldn't want my kid to see imagery of little boys lifting up a girl's skirt or
groping her, [LAUGH] in her private parts and like that's not okay.
But their concern is like this makes us look bad, makes us look bad.
It makes our culture look bad, cultural annihilation like,
they just can't get specific and that's the thing that drives me crazy, right?
Like, I personally don't care about the tattoo issue, but for them,
the tattoo issue is important because it's a commentary about their culture and
how important their culture is.
I don't give a damn about your culture.
I do give a damn about what kind of lessons young kids are learning
about treating other people, including girls and women.
>> Yeah, and so, there's been consequences.
Several people have been fired.
Others they put demerits on their record,
which means that it will be very hard for them to get jobs going forward.
These are the people who approved the textbooks and then they're looking into
17 people that might have had something to do with the illustrations.
And that's where it got like, vague and in a scary way, they were like,
it is not clear what the government has done to the illustrators.
I was like whoa.
So, I don't know what they did but that doesn't sound good.
>> Agreed.
All right, well, let's move on.
Let's end with a heartwarming story about dogs, because it's science as well.
Science is important, we give you science and
here's a new research paper that you should know about.