BEIJING — At the start of a new school year, a kindergarten principal in southern China thought dance performances would make a grand welcome. They would include jazz and traditional Chinese dance, she said. Oh, and there would also would be a strutting, shimmying pole dancer.

“The goal was to get the kids to learn more about one variety of dance,” Lai Rong, the principal, told one Chinese news outlet.

Goal achieved.

The internet in China lit up with video of the pole dance performance on Monday at the Xinshahui Kindergarten in Shenzhen, accompanied by outrage and wonderment that anyone would think pole dancing was a reassuring way to greet anxious children being dropped off for a new semester.

Ceremonies for the Chinese school year are usually solemn affairs, and so social media platforms like Weibo and Chinese news outlets erupted with demands for an explanation and punishment.