Recently, there has been a buzz surrounding the bankruptcy of Baiya Art Education Center in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China (Yixuan Culture and Art Co., Ltd., referred to as Baiya). Teachers and parents are still in ongoing disputes over debts owed, but the company has now been taken over by another entity.
Established in 2010, with a registered capital of 500,000 yuan, the legal representative of Baiya is Wang Daomin. On October 25, Wang Daomin and his wife posted a video on their Douyin (TikTok) account “BaiYa Wang Xiao Chang” which caused a huge uproar. They kneeled in front of the sign of Baiya Art Education Center, tearfully announcing the institution’s bankruptcy and promising not to “run away.”
Although the video has been deleted, their Douyin account indicates: “Baiya has fallen, we have gone bankrupt! After 14 years of hard work, we are still unable to overcome the situation! But we will not run away, we will face it positively…”
The video sparked a movement among Baiya teachers and parents. Starting from October 26, a large number of parents from all over gathered at Baiya Education Center, reaching its peak on the 27th, with authorities deploying police to suppress the situation. On November 8, the operation of the company was taken over by a new entity, Thoughtful Innovation Technology (referred to as Thoughtful), but it did not completely address the demands of parents and teachers.
Regarding the video where the boss announced bankruptcy, Fang Ming (alias), a teacher at Baiya, told a reporter, “Playing the victim.” He mentioned that the night before the bankruptcy declaration, the company’s management held a meeting, after which they distributed belongings without informing any teachers or parents. The boss talked about bankruptcy, but it’s only verbal; formal legal procedures have not been followed. The boss’s stance now is, “I have no money, what can you do to me?”
According to Fang Ming, a few days before the bankruptcy announcement, Wang Daomin had already moved his child, father-in-law, and mother-in-law elsewhere, and nobody knows where they went; his child no longer attends school locally. Teachers believe that the boss had money and took it away. It is said that Wang Daomin owns six villas and several luxury cars. Fang Ming wanted to report to the police at one point but was stopped by company executives.
He also mentioned, “The key thing is, in October, he (Wang Daomin) clearly knew he was going bankrupt, yet he continued to let parents pay fees, initiated many projects, had parents pay for classes, organized activities such as outdoor sketching, collected money, and even had us (teachers) continue teaching until the end.”
Fang Ming stated that the institution had not paid salaries for three months, and he was owed nearly 40,000 yuan. The institution had over 60 teachers, with unpaid salaries totaling over 1 million yuan, and over 1,500 students with tuition fees amounting to over 4 million yuan. He believed the boss’s debt should be in tens of millions of yuan.
“I’m now unemployed, still fighting for my rights, my rent is due soon, I can’t even speak properly now,” Fang Ming helplessly said. Teachers have decided to seek labor arbitration, and parents have decided to involve lawyers in legal proceedings.
However, on November 8, Thoughtful Technology issued an open letter to Baiya parents, stating that they had taken over Baiya’s operation. Since they did not receive any fees paid by original Baiya students, they would not be responsible for refunding the fees. Only the actual amount paid for classes can be transferred, part of which would be considered invalid. They demanded all students to complete the course cancellation by February 5 next year. After taking over, the company would cancel all Baiya’s membership fee packages as required by government departments.
A teacher who wished to remain anonymous told a reporter from The Epoch Times that despite the new company taking over and some classes resuming, the issues related to teachers’ salaries and parents’ paid tuition had not been resolved. The new company only took over the operation after the previous company and completely severed ties regarding the predecessor’s debts.
A parent also mentioned that parents requested tuition refunds but felt it was very difficult, as some parents had already let their children continue attending classes.
Efforts were made by The Epoch Times reporter to contact Baiya Education Center, but were unsuccessful.