Recently, Yu Minhong, founder of New Oriental Education & Technology (EDU), shared a video on social media featuring a new song created by employees that humorously criticizes the company. He captioned the post: "A song where employees 'complain' about New Oriental, but they didn’t forget to save themselves in the end, haha."
The song pokes fun at various workplace grievances, such as daily and weekly reports being a burden, receiving predictable holiday gift boxes, the pressure of performance metrics and renewals, and work notifications interrupting vacations. It also jokingly remarks, "No matter how big the grievances are, they can’t be bigger than Yu Minhong’s."
In a separate post, Yu Minhong introduced the song as part of the third season of "The Worker’s Song," where teachers from across the country share their New Oriental stories through music.
This is not the first time New Oriental employees have used music to voice their frustrations. In 2019, a performance by six employees from Beijing New Oriental School went viral after they rewrote the lyrics of "Desert Camel" to critique corporate inefficiencies and poor management. Yu Minhong later rewarded the creators with 120,000 RMB, praising their courage to speak up and encouraging a culture of transparency.
Yu Minhong founded New Oriental in 1993, which later expanded into New Oriental Education & Technology Group, covering education, lifestyle, and cultural tourism services. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2006 and had a secondary listing in Hong Kong in 2020.
In late 2021, New Oriental ventured into live-streaming e-commerce with its platform EAST BUY (01797.HK). Recently, Yu Minhong confirmed the departure of former EAST BUY CEO Sun Dongxu, citing personal reasons but emphasizing their continued positive relationship.
On November 7, EAST BUY’s stock price fell 6.53% to HK$20.02, hitting a three-month low. Earlier reports in August had speculated about Sun’s departure, but the company initially denied it, stating he was on leave.
Sun Dongxu, who joined New Oriental in 2007, stepped down as CEO of EAST BUY in December 2023, with Yu Minhong taking over the role. According to EAST BUY’s latest annual report, Sun’s compensation for the partial year amounted to 33.6 million RMB.
The report also revealed a 32.7% drop in revenue to 4.392 billion RMB and a 97.5% decline in net profit to 6.191 million RMB, attributed to intensified competition in live-streaming e-commerce and strategic shifts toward self-operated products. Excluding the impact of selling its subsidiary Yuhui Tongxing, adjusted net profit rose 30% to 135.4 million RMB.
Last July, EAST BUY sold its subsidiary Yuhui Tongxing to Dong Yuhui for 76.5855 million RMB.