China eatery sparks outrage for ‘beating wife’ sales slogan hinting domestic violence approval

A noodle restaurant in Xining, located in northwestern China's Qinghai province, has ignited a firestorm of criticism and official action after displaying a banner with the slogan 'beaten wife, kneaded dough.' The phrase is a shortened reference to an old saying from the Guanzhong plain region: 'the more a dough is kneaded the better the noodles taste, the more a wife is beaten the more docile she gets.' Images of the banner circulated widely on Chinese social media platforms like Douyin, where users universally condemned the attempt to rationalize domestic violence and objectify women through a marketing gimmick.

In response to the public outcry, the local market supervision administration intervened on April 13. Authorities demanded the eatery immediately take down and destroy the offensive banner. Officials also provided 'education' to the person responsible for the shop and formally stated that the advertisement violated China's Advertising Law. The swift regulatory action underscores the sensitivity of such issues, even as other offensive sayings, like 'a wife cannot be beaten to death and peppers cannot burn in the sun,' were noted in the online discussion, further fueling anger over the normalization of gender-based violence.