An elementary school textbook on sex education that sparked a heated online discussion in China last week has sold out, just a day after the school decided to pull all its copies. ‍

The debate initiated from a mother’s post on Chinese social networking platform Weibo, who said a sex education textbook given to her elementary school child made her blush.

Some netizens agreed that the blunt language and illustrations of the reproductive organs and of two people having sex was not appropriate for young children.

On Sunday, Gaoqiao Elementary School in Hangzhou, in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province - the first school to officially use the textbook - decided to take back all copies, following parents’ complaints.

But just a day later, the textbook had sold out online. 

“I bought it immediately after I read the news even if my baby is only one year old,” said Weibo user @Hexiadeyu. “If it is sold out, I’m afraid I cannot find a well written sex textbook like this one.”

“I have been looking for it on many websites but many of them are sold out,” added another netizen, @Langlichitiaoxiaoculin, at the same time welcoming the textbook’s success.

As of Wednesday morning, the textbook was no longer in stock on China’s largest online book store Dangdang. But the page said a second edition was in preparation and customers could already reserve it.

In a statement on Tuesday, Gaoqiao Elementary School also said that while it had pulled the textbook, sex education classes were still very necessary and the school would implement similar courses in the future.

Sex is still a taboo subject in China, and schools and parents often find it difficult to talk to youngsters about it, even though young people are increasingly having sex before marriage, and the number of child sex abuse cases has been increasing over the past few years.