Professor exposes illustration errors in textbooks

A history professor in Anyang, Henan province, found that there are mistakes with the illustrations in Chinese language textbooks, which were published by the People's Education Press, Henan-based news website dahe.cn reported on Tuesday.

The mistakes, which incorrectly present historical facts, pertain to the lives and practices of Chinese people in the past and can be divided into six types, including furniture, clothes, books, animals and plants, said the professor, who specializes in social studies at a local university.

For example, the professor pointed out that an illustration of a woman carrying grapes with a story of the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) was misleading, as grapes were introduced to China 300 years later during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24).

This is not the first time the People's Education Press has been criticized for mistakes in its textbooks.

On Nov 19, Henan-based Zhengzhou Evening News reported that a teacher in Zhengzhou, Henan province, found there were more than 30 writing mistakes in a seventh-grade Chinese language textbook.

The teacher sued the publisher, and it released an apology on its website on Nov 29 for six mistakes in the textbook.