The case of a woman abducted, trafficked and sold 21 years ago who has been hailed a "role model" has caused controversy online.

Gao Yanmin was sold to a remote village in Baoding, Hebei province only to reappear as a rural school teacher, reported Hushang Daily, a local paper based in Xi'an, Shaanxi province on Thursday.

Gao's story ignited public anger about the authorities' inaction after her story was reported in 2006. She was set up as a role model for people who had been trafficked after settling down in the village where her buyer lives and taught local children in school.

She was defrauded by two women who said they could find her a job at a train station in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province in 1996. She was kidnapped and sent to a man in Quyang county in Hebei to be his wife for 2,700 yuan after being resold three times.

While living with the man she tried to run away but was tracked down and beaten. She attempted suicide three times before, faced with the reality of her condition, she settled down.

She had children and has worked as a teacher since 2000 in a local primary school where there was a lack of education resources. She has devoted her life to the students with negligible pay and bought books for pupils who didn't have enough money.

Gao's plight was put under a spotlight in 2006 when local media heaped praise on her for her devotion to the students and her forgiveness of those who had harmed her, dubbing her "the most beautiful rural teacher".

A year later, she was nominated for a provincial award as a role model. Her story received wide media coverage and was even adapted into a movie in 2009.

Her story was posted online again by an Internet user this week then soon spread on most Chinese news outlets and popular social networks such as Sina Weibo and WeChat.

Netizens questioned the story that minimized the problem of human trafficking and abduction while focusing instead on Gao's resignation to her fate. They felt that people responsible for her plight were not held accountable, and that it was a twisted system of values that held her up to be a role model for accepting her fate.

Chen Shiqu, chief of the Anti-trafficking Office of China's Ministry of Public Security, said on his Weibo account that human traders and buyers should be punished without tolerance and sympathy and victims should be helped.

Another Weibo user said: "I could not understand why a social tragedy and embarrassment became a model, while a further Weibo user commented: "How could you have the nerve to ask a victim to shoulder the responsibility while letting the traffickers go unpunished?"

Zeng Yaxian, a writer and columnist with news portal sina.com, called for an end to hardship for Gao and a return of her dignity.

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