A Chinese woman was sentenced to apologize to her husband for 15 days straight (7 photos)

A Chinese court ruling is interesting – apparently, you can be sentenced to 15 consecutive public apologies, and that's perfectly acceptable in China. What's even more amusing is what this court ruling led to.





A story about a cheater and a scandal



And now all of China is applauding this woman.

A Chinese woman named Niu Na from Henan Province posted an emotional story on her Douyin profile. She wrote that she and her husband, Gao Fei, had been married for 10 years. They have a daughter together. But she discovered that for five years, her husband had been having an affair with his married colleague, Han. Worse, he was spending the family money to buy his mistress cosmetics, gold jewelry, and fashionable clothes. The woman angrily revealed everything: her husband's identity, his place of work, and the work of his mistress. All the while, she peppered the whole thing with harsh insults—"pig," "thief."





By the way, I found where her husband is shown.

Unable to bear such humiliation, the couple filed a lawsuit against her (or rather, the husband initiated it, as their marriage was clearly over). A controversial court ruling: The court reviewed her video and confessions and decided that the video was offensive and humiliating, and that the deceived woman was in the wrong. They sentenced her to 15 days of public apology. The verdict was: personal moral transgressions do not justify the violation of the rights of others (disclosing their identity and specifically humiliating them).



The videos are Chinese, I think they're filters after all.

This isn't uncommon in China; suing for defamation is common there. And defamation leads to civil liability, usually an apology, a cease-and-desist, and compensation. It sounds neutral and appropriate. But it backfired in Niu's situation. She was told that the content of her apology video was subject to court approval.



In her first videos before the trial, where she rants emotionally, she's still disheveled.

In one of her first apology videos, Nyu said:

"You and your mistress are experiencing true love. Even with your serious moral flaws, your personal rights and reputation deserve respect."

In each video, she emphasizes WHY she's apologizing—for the scandal involving her husband's infidelity. To avoid being sued for slander, she shows all the evidence—correspondence with her husband, scans of his spending on his mistress. She even shows a photograph of her husband's head injury, the one she suffered when his mistress's husband beat him. "I shouldn't have mocked you and called you a pig. You were beaten because you wanted to stand up for that woman. You're such a good husband and lover."



The girl even posted a photo of the bruise from when her husband hit her after an argument. This isn't what he expected from the court, not this...

The Chinese are delighted (or would they be?) Because the woman was able to turn moral humiliation (apologizing to a cheating husband who was ruining the family with his mistress) into moral superiority. Since the content of the apology is approved by the court, there are no questions for the woman. And her video has millions of views and words of support. The Chinese woman quickly began selling hairpins and other jewelry thanks to her popularity. It's an ancient Chinese tradition to convert online popularity into sales on the second day, as I wrote about.



Very soon, earrings and hairpins from the video were being sold on her account.

The company where the husband and mistress worked, escaping public shame, fired the couple. Niu Na herself is not yet divorced, but lives separately from her husband. I was most impressed by the court order—she must apologize in videos for 15 days. So, was that even allowed?