anti domestic violence Photo:VCG

Li Yang, a famous English language teacher, was exposed by his American ex-wife of home violence again on Chinese social media platform on Sunday, after she exposed his physical assaults in 2011 and chose to forgive him in 2019.

Li's ex-wife Kim Lee, with a Sina Weibo account @Linahua's Mom, released a video which seems to record Li's physical assaults toward his daughter.

In the video, Li is heard shouting "why record," "what happened," "sit down," and sounds of hitting can be heard. A female voice kept asking and crying, "what are you doing?" "You want to kill me? ..." A child's crying and screaming can also be heard.

China protects them [daughters] from the COVID-19 epidemic and the anti-Asian hatred ravaging the US, but they were attacked by their father!said Kim in the blog.

"You hit me, and told me it's Chinese culture. I had no solutions, so I divorced you," Kim said. "In 2021, they [Li Yang's followers] still say that I did not understand Chinese culture, and Li is their master."

In the blog, Kim hopes that all the learners of Li's Crazy English understand that China now has an Anti-Domestic Violence Law and they are worshiping a criminal.

The video with the hashtag "Ex-wife accused Li Yang of domestic violence" has attracted huge attention from Chinese netizens, with more than 400 million views and 25,000 discussions on Weibo.

The video posted by Kim was viewed more than 41.3 million times as of press time.

Li's behavior has attracted widespread criticism from netizens. "Li Yang, this lunatic, is not dead yet?" criticized many netizens. 

"Li probably will never know how severe his behavior is. This is obviously a serious condition," said another.

Some netizens criticized Li for saying "This is Chinese culture," and said that "Moderate, beneficent, respectful, sparing and tolerant are the real values of Chinese culture, while domestic violence is his own madness."

Chinese Anti-Domestic Violence Law took effect in March, 2016. According to the law, domestic violence includes infliction of physical, psychological or other harm by a family member on another through means of beating, trussing, injury, restraint and forcible limits on personal freedom, recurring verbal abuse and threats.

"If Li frequently abuses or beats his ex-wife and daughter, we can say that he has violated the law, and should be punished accordingly," Han Xiao, a Beijing-based lawyer, told the Global Times on Monday.

As the guardian of her daughters, Li's ex-wife can report to and ask for help from the community committee and women's federation, Han said. "She can also report the case to the police or file a lawsuit with the court and apply for a personal safety protective order."

But it's not easy for a case like this, Han said. "The application for protective order has high standards, and sometimes the channel of reporting to community or women's federation would not be that effective, and there are also difficulties in collecting evidence of domestic violence as it often happens abruptly and cannot be seen by others outside the family." 

Li's physical attacks towards his ex-wife can be traced back to August 2011, when Kim showed a photo of her wounds, which exposed Li's domestic violence on Weibo. 

In February 3, 2013, the divorce case of Li and Kim was concluded in a court in Chaoyang district in Beijing, judging that Li had shown violent behavior and approved the divorce. The court ruled that the three daughters should be raised by Kim.

According to the verdict, Li was ordered to pay his former wife 50,000 yuan ($7,960) in compensation for her psychological traumas and a one-off sum of 12 million yuan in consideration of the property the couple shared, in addition to an annual child support payment of 100,000 yuan to each of their three daughters before each turn 18.

In November 28, 2019, which was a Thanksgiving Day, Kim posted a Weibo blog, in which she chose to forgive Li and said she still loved Li. "Compared to a 'domestic violence victim,' I prefer to call myself a 'domestic violence survivor' ... as a survivor needs to have power, and I did it," said Kim in the article.