Row over long-haired men featured in school books

A passage in a supplementary exercise book used in Chinese-type national schools apparently disparaging long-haired men has caused a furor on social media.

The exercise featured a short passage with blanks that need to be filled by students who have to choose from eight given Chinese characters.

The passage described the story of a schoolgirl with a father who kept his hair long and styled it into a pony tail.

According to the passage, one day, while the father went to send his daughter to school, her friends told her that they were unsure if the person who sent her was her father or her mother because of the long hair.

This embarrassed the daughter who was sad and refused to talk to her father at home until he approached her and found out what was the problem.

As the story went, the father later cut off his long hair to save his daughter embarrassment.

A series of four photographs accompanied the text showing the long-haired father and the daughter. It ended with a photograph of the father with short hair finally embracing his daughter in happiness.

The passage has been circulated on social media and garnered criticism from netizens who claimed that this amounted to discrimination against men with long hair.

However, the publisher, Cemerlang Publications, has denied the allegation, saying that its critics have missed the context of the exercise.

"The exercise book was published three to four years ago and it is only now that there is misunderstanding about it.

"Everyone has his or her own views about the passage; some may perceive it as discriminatory," said the publishing firm's editor who only want to be known as Miss Hor when contacted by Malaysiakini.

Hor stressed that the passage never said whether it was proper for men to sport long hair.

She said the passage was fictional and only used to illustrate a crisis and how to resolve it.

However, she added that the exercise book was part of an old syllabus and may be phased out soon.

She said that in future the company will make sure the passage is amended from its present form should it be necessary to continue with the publication of the book. -Mkini