A Chinese kindergarten teacher has been caught on camera forcing more than 30 pupils repeatedly slapping their own faces in a classroom.

The educator demanded that the children smack themselves as hard as they could and if not, he would hit them instead, state media reported.

The male teacher from the southern province of Hainan has been detained, Xinhua News Agency said.

Surveillance footage shows the male teacher watching the young pupils smacking themselves

The teacher walks up to one boy and slaps him because the child failed to hit himself hard

The incident reportedly took place at a privately owned kindergarten in the county of Tunchang on Wednesday.

Footage circulating online shows boys and girls beating themselves again and again while standing in three rows.

At one point, the teacher dressed in a blue track top is seen walking up to one boy, whose hand is resting on his face, and giving him three hard slaps.

The clip then shows him approaching another boy and hitting his face once.

This is not the first time the teacher has been caught giving physical punishment to his pupils, parents told Xinhua.

It remains unclear why the pupils were punished. The teacher has been detained (file photo)

The kindergarten said the teacher had been detained by police, the report said.

It remains unclear why the pupils were punished.

According to Chinese news site Cover News, the incident occurred at Shangshuyuan Kindergarten.

The centre has 12 classes and bills itself as a 'large-scale, high-quality and international' kindergarten, according to its official social media.

The case is under police investigation.

The news came a month after a teacher at a kindergarten in eastern China was caught forcing her pupils to queue in front of her and repeatedly slap their own faces.

The children were made to carry out the self-punishment as their classmates watched after failing to fall asleep during nap time.

At least four boys and girls were ordered to whack themselves non-stop until the teacher allowed them to go.

The female educator from Jiangsu Province was sacked.