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February 21, 2013

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She hit me, says boss of 'Crazy English'

"CRAZY English" founder Li Yang, whose wife divorced him because of domestic violence, is now accusing her of abusing him.

Lodging an appeal against a court ruling that he pay American Kim Lee 12 million yuan (US$1.9 million) plus 50,000 yuan for psychological trauma, Li said his ex-wife sometimes beat him first, locked him outside for hours at night, deleted his computer files, dumped his books and documents in a pool, and threw food at him while he was giving a lecture.

Li wants the court to check whether his ex-wife had psychological problems which would explain her behavior.

Chaoyang District People's Court in Beijing accepted Li's appeal on Monday, the final day of a 15-day grace period, China National Radio reported yesterday.

On February 3, the court granted a divorce because of the violence Lee had suffered and gave her custody of the couple's daughters, aged 10, 6 and 4. Li must pay 100,000 yuan a year for each child until they reach the age of 18.

Lee had previously uploaded pictures showing injuries, including a bleeding left ear, swollen forehead and bruised knees, she said had been caused by her husband.

She became something of a folk hero for China's battered wives after her story went viral online.

In his appeal, Li said the couple's 2005 marriage in the United States was invalid as he was still married to his first wife. The official marriage was in the southern city of Guangzhou in July 2010. Most of the family wealth was made before the wedding so Lee shouldn't have been given such a large sum, he said.

Li is also asking the court to let him raise his three daughters, who are attending an international school in Beijing. His ex-wife had no stable income, he said, and could not afford the cost of their education. He also said the girls would be better able to study the Chinese culture by staying with him.

Li became famous for creating "Crazy English," a method of shouting out words and phrases to memorize and practice the language. He claims to have taught millions to speak English since the early 1990s.

He once said he married Lee not out of love but to research American child-raising techniques.

Li even claimed that wife-beating was normal in China.


 

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