Statue of elderly woman being breast-fed removed from Chinese park after public outcry

Carved figures criticised for being ‘inappropriate’ and ‘clashing with modern-day values’

The statue drew outrage with people saying it’s hard to understand why the woman breast-feeds her mother-in-law [file photo] (Getty Images)

A statue of a woman breast-feeding her elderly mother-in-law has been removed from a park in eastern China after criticism that it was “inappropriate” and “clashed with modern-day values”.

Yingpanshan Park in Zhejiang province said the statue was removed after authorities intervened following the backlash, according to the South China Morning Post.

Staff at the park said the statue was inspired by a story in The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars, a book on filial piety written by Guo Jujing in the Yuan dynasty (1260-1368). The story is said to be based on a true incident in which a woman breast-fed her mother-in-law who had lost all her teeth due to old age.

The statue drew outrage with people saying it was hard to understand why the woman was breastfeeding her relative, according to state-run Global Times.

Users on Weibo – the Chinese equivalent of Twitter – also criticised the statue. “In the modern world, can you imagine a woman breast-feeding her in-law? It makes people uncomfortable and misleads the children,” one said.

Other stories in The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars have sparked controversies in the past.

In 2019, a park in Beijing received complaints about its statues – one of which was based on a story of a man who tasted his father's faeces to determine his illness, and another was inspired by a man who killed his son to provide food for his mother.