A kindergarten located in south-east China has been slammed by furious parents after it had organized a pole dancing performance as a back-to-school welcome for the children. Footage of the strange performance that was uploaded to social media on September 3 showed a woman wearing barely-there clothing and high heels while spinning around the pole for an audience consisting of confused children and angry parents.

The school, Xinshashui Kindergarten in the Bao'an District of Shenzhen, China, has since issued an apology and has said that the pole dancing performance was well-intentioned. Shocked parents posted videos of the performance on social media and many of them have now said that they are trying to pull their children out of the school and get the tuition money back. 

According to the Daily Mail, one of the parents commented saying: "What was the principal thinking? Pole dancing is entirely inappropriate in a school setting. I demand my money back." One journalist who is based in Shenzhen and who has two young children enroled in the school, Michael Standaert, said that pole dancing as a performance for the school was a "strange" choice.

He told the publication in an interview: "I have nothing against pole dancing for adults doing exercise or in adult clubs and things like that, but it is so strangely inappropriate for a kindergarten performance. He added that he is still deciding whether he should pull his children out of the school like some of the other parents are doing. 

The Shenzhen Evening News reported that multiple witnesses came forward and confirmed that the pole dancer had been dancing using the flagpole bearing the Chinese national flag and in front of an audience of about 600 people. Even though pole dancing is gradually becoming more and more popular in the country, many citizens still associate it with pornography or strip clubs. The subject is highly controversial in China which is a country that is still pretty conservative regarding a lot of Western concepts.

Following huge backlash, the principal of the kindergarten, Lai Rong, has since been sacked. The Baoan district education bureau made the announcement on its website Monday afternoon, after the video went viral online.  

Lai Rong, in his apology, said that the school had only been attempting to "lighten up the atmosphere" for the first day of school for the students. The apology also said: "We apologize for not putting more consideration into the planning of the dance performance and for causing a bad experience among students and parents."

The Shenzhen Education Bureau had issued a statement on its official Weibo account that said the ministry is currently investigating the incident. The statement said: "The education bureau believes it is not appropriate to arrange pole dancing performances for children in kindergartens." The police have also demanded that the kindergarten's principal be dismissed from duty immediately.

There were some parents, however, who were quite okay with the performance that the school arranged and said that there was nothing wrong with the performance by the pole dancers. One parent commented: "What kind of prejudice is this? What's wrong with pole dancing? A lot of children practice Latin dancing, ballet, jazz nowadays — pole dancing is just another art form!"