A gay Chinese student activist filed a formal complaint against the Ministry of Education on Monday (Sept. 12) over school textbooks that described homosexuality as a mental disorder.

Ever since its decriminalization in 2001, same-sex relationships or homosexuality are not considered as illegal in China and many major cities in the country have already embraced the gay culture.

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However, Chinese educational institutions continue to use textbooks that refer to homosexuality as "disorder" and "impediment," according to research carried out by the Gay and Lesbian Campus Association of China in 2014, Reuters reported.

Qiu Bai, a 21-year-old student of Guangzhou's Sun Yat-Sen University, claims she came across similar material while going through books in the library of her own university when she started to have doubts about her own sexual orientation.

"Since 2001 when homosexuality was declassified as an illness in mainland China, 40 per cent of the psychology and mental health teaching materials published on the mainland say homosexuality is an illness," Qiu said.

She previously brought the issue to the attention of the Ministry of Education and the publishers of the textbooks in 2015 by lodging a legal case but her complaints were ignored and no action was taken to resolve the problem.

The Ministry also promised to tackle the issue via their internal mediation process if Qiu dropped the lawsuit but that deal also did not work out, she said.

The fact that the case has garnered nationwide attention and has managed to make its way into court is already seen by many as a big win for Qiu, who wants the ministry to deal with the issue by recalling the textbooks.

"As someone studying within the education system, when the Ministry of Education tells me that the education materials have no connection with us and we won't deal with it, it's really disappointing," she said.

Tagschina, homosexuality, Gay, Activist, Ministry of Education, Qiu Bai, textbook, mental disorder