China teacher turned influencer famous for cute kindergarten song caught up in US$7,000-for-sex rumours, calls in police

A former preschool teacher who became famous last year when she appeared in a video singing to children, has claimed she has become the target of an online pornography slur.

The woman, surnamed Huang, worked as a music teacher at a nursery school in Wuhan, Hubei province in central China.

She shot to fame in April 2023 in a video clip that showed her singing and using hand gestures to teach her pupils a song called Small Small Garden.

The video was so popular on mainland social media that it had more than 7 million likes on Huang’s Douyin account alone.

People were drawn to the young woman’s attractive smile, saying she was like the girl next door and that the simple song she taught the children was “magic and brainwashing”.

After becoming an online celebrity with 7.6 million followers, Huang quit her job at the kindergarten. She now shares video clips of children’s songs and regularly does live-streaming sessions.

She had a baby at the end of last year.

On February 28, Huang said in a video that she had discovered some rumours about her online and that she and her family were suffering psychologically because of them, news outlet The Cover reported.

Someone using the pseudonym Tianwang, claimed in a chat group that he paid Huang for sex.

“At first, she pretended to be a pure girl. But after I increased the price to 30,000 yuan (US$4,200) per night, she agreed to have sex with me,” the person claimed, according to an online chat record.

Another person released a video in which Huang’s face had been digitally attached to a naked body: “Wow, teacher Huang has got a tattoo,” someone commented.

Huang said in her video that she initially ignored the rumours as she believes “a clean hand needs no washing”.

She later changed her mind and decided to take action.

“I calmed down. The internet is still governed by law, so I collected the evidence and reported the case to the police,” she said.

“Internet users are not obliged to be responsible for what they said, but I should be responsible for my own life,” Huang added.

Online rumour-mongers are not rare in China.

Last year, a man in the southeastern province of Guangdong was jailed for a year for spreading fake news online about a “gold-digger” marrying an ageing tycoon, which showed photos of a young woman with her grandfather. – South China Morning Post