Chinese businessman apologizes for 'sexist' remarks

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Money is what Chinese women want in a mate and having a good conscience is really not the point. As such, it can be said depraved women degenerate the whole of China, said Yu Minhong, founder and president of New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. on November 18

These comments in a public speech soon went viral on China's social media, striking a chord with many men while being shot down by women and media outlets.

Irritated by Yu's words, Chinese actress Zhang Yuqi, also known as Kitty Zhang, responded on China's Twitter-like social platform Weibo by saying that "schooling years in Peking University and the success of New Oriental failed to help you understand values of women or the essence of gender equality. You even have no idea of equality." The posting received over 730,000 likes.

Zhang Yuqi, a popular actress in China. /VCG Photo

To counter the backlash, Yu later made an apology in a posting on his own Weibo account late. "What I wanted to say was that the level of a country's females represents the level of the country…

"In the meantime, men are also guided by women's values – if the latter are in the pursuit of intellectual life, men will become more intelligent; if women blindly chase after wealth and material life, men will scramble to earn bread and milk while neglecting wholly the spiritual life."

China will be strong only if the males are strong, and the males will be strong when females are powerful, he added.

Yu, an undergraduate of Peking University, established Beijing New Oriental School in 1993. In 2006, New Oriental was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Chinese mainland's first educational institution to go public in the United States.

The company's share price has dived by 50 percent on the NYSE in the past five months after hitting a record high of 108.23 US dollars per share on June 12. It closed on November 16 with the stock price standing at 55.68 US dollars per share.