Chinese netizens have directed their latest ire at a student in Southeast China's Fujian province after she said in a video interview that she used live butterflies to complete her graduation design project.

Thousands left comments on China's Twitter-like Weibo, saying that she was brutal and disrespectful to the animals.

The woman said that only through butterflies can her artistic ideas of "rebirth" be properly expressed, shown in the caterpillar breaking out of the cocoon after becoming a butterfly.

"My professor asked us to recreate a famous painting with various materials and I chose Van Gogh's self-portrait. One day, when seeing a piece of floral craft made of butterflies, the idea came to me," she said.

For the creative audience, making art out of animals is not surprising, but what has drawn criticism is her use of over 500 butterflies in her work, some of which were still alive during the pasting process.