A famous Chinese history teacher is creating a national controversy by openly criticizing China's untouchable late leader, Mao Zedong, calling him a dictator who massacred people, Chosun Ilbo reported Saturday.
Yuan Tengfei, a history teacher at Beijing's Jinghua School, recently gave a 110-minute special TV lecture at the state television, CCTV, in which Yuan broke a cardinal taboo in China and criticized Mao, the founder of the Communist China in 1949, according to the newspaper.
"If you want to see Mao, you can go to his mausoleum at the Tiananmen Square. But don't forget it's a Chinese version of the Yasukuni Shrine, which glorifies Mao, under whose hands many people were massacred," it said citing the Chinese newspaper, Global Times.
"The only thing Mao did right since he founded the new China in 1949 was his death," Yuan reportedly said in the newspaper, according to Chosun.
Yuan is a TV celebrity history teacher in China, who is also a member of the history committee that prepares the national college entrance exam. He also lectures at the CCTV, which is watched by "several millions of Chinese people," Chosun said.
Yuan also criticized Chinese history books' distortion. "Although Japan's history books distort history, it is not as serious as what Chinese books do," Chosun cited him as saying.
"Among what is written in Chinese history books, less than 5 percent is true. The rest is complete fabrication," Yuan said, according to Chosun.
Despite the Chinese government's effort to censor his TV lecture, his lecture footage is spreading quickly on the Internet, Chosun said.