Chinese educator Li Yang has dropped his appeal against a divorce settlement with his former wife Kim Lee.
Yang is the founder of the popular ‘Crazy English’ method of learning the language. Crazy English involves shouting English phrases to achieve oral fluency and has around 20 million users in China, although some observers believe it is not in keeping with the traditional Chinese emphasis on modesty.
In September 2011, Yang’s American born wife accused him of domestic violence, posting pictures online of bruises he had reportedly inflicted. According to reports, Yang later admitted these accusations were true.
Lee filed for divorce in October that year and at the beginning of this month, a court in Beijing ruled that Yang should pay her 12 million yuan to be paid within three months, plus 50,000 yuan compensation for the domestic violence. She was also awarded custody of the couple’s three daughters, with Yang ordered to pay 100,000 yuan for each per year until they reached the age of 18.
Yang lodged an appeal, claiming that he had also been domestically abused and seeking custody of the children and refusing to pay the compensation. But this appeal has now been dropped, after some details of the settlement were changed and he was granted extra time to pay.
Photo of Beijing by Arian Zwegers via Flickr under a Creative Commons licence
