The post on Tianya.cn

The education authority in Liangshan, Sichuan province has refuted rumors about the quality of life experienced by students in the region, after reports of poor living conditions began to circulate online.

On Oct. 24, an article about students’ "poor life" in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture was published on Tianya.cn, a popular website in China. The story’s detailed narration and images caused it to be reposted many times over on various social media platforms and news sites.

According to the post, a group of young volunteer teachers was shocked by the impoverished life in Daliangshan.

"Children have been eating [nothing but] cold, hard potatoes and steamed buckwheat bread for lunch for a decade. They don’t have meat to eat at all. Their dormitories are shabby, the quilts are dirty and there are flies in their rooms," the post stated. "A 7-year-old boy has never in his life taken a bath. There is no toilet in his home, and he has never seen toilet paper," it continued, supplementing the text with a few images of a school in Puge County.

Students in a rural school in Liangshan. (Photo provided by the Education Bureau of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture)

A statement released on Oct. 24 by the Education Bureau of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture called the post pure rumor, adding that it even fabricated names of places and schools. The statement said the school in the article does not exist, nor does the township in which it is supposedly situated. What’s more, the teaching facilities and dormitories described in schools that do exist are much better than the post’s author acknowledged.

The statement also refuted the article’s claim that children in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture don’t have meat to eat. In fact, the children often eat meat at school, and the Yi people slaughter pigs on the occasions of Spring Festival and weddings, the bureau said.

Jin Zihei, a teacher who has worked in the deep mountains of Liangshan for 20 years, said that the post’s descriptions were inaccurate, and that every Yi family raises livestock and poultry. It is actually easier to access meat in the region than vegetables, as vegetables are difficult to grow in the high-altitude conditions.

Although his school is not the most advanced, Jin said that he and his wife cook enough rice for his students every day, assisted by the country’s Healthy Lunch Program.

A reporter managed to contact Mr. Li, the owner of the Tianya account that first published the article. Li said the post described the situation in the area a few years ago, and it is not fresh news. An editor of his WeChat account put the content online. After they discovered the post circulating, they deleted the article from Li’s WeChat and offered an apology on Weibo.