The co-compiler of a Chinese textbook used in Beijing secondary schools said Wednesday that it has removed a controversial Bible story from the book after facing criticism that the text spreads Western values.
The Beijing Academy of Educational Science (BAES), one of the textbook's two compilers and a textbook selection consultant for capital education authorities, said it had removed the content from the textbook by the end of 2015, and schools will begin to use the revised version in the upcoming fall semester, news site people.cn reported Wednesday.
According to the report, BAES has included extracts from the Bible's Book of Genesis in its Chinese language textbook for first-year middle school students since early 2002.
The book recently triggered heated discussion online, as some netizens questioned why the Christian content appeared in a textbook in a secular country.
An employee from BAES previously told the Beijing Youth Daily that they had included the Bible story to broaden students' horizons by introducing them to Western mythology.
Columnist Wang Xiaoshi published a commentary on Hainan-based news site cwzg.cn, saying that the textbook violates China's Education Law, which mandates that China adopt the principle of separation of education and religion.
However, Mei Hualong, a PhD candidate in Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Harvard University, was quoted by news site as saying that the Bible originated from the ancient Middle East and has greatly influenced the West. The book is thus an important channel for students to learn more about the outside world, and including some of its contents in a textbook reflects China's cultural confidence, Mei asserted.
Ideology and patriotism in China's textbooks have been a heated topic for a long time, with China's Education Minister Yuan Guiren said in 2015 that Chinese universities should maintain political integrity and shun textbooks that promote Western values.
