Too Many boys who just want to have fun
From The Times
An overwhelming majority of high school girls in Beijing would not refuse a boyfriend's requests for sex, and more than half of students see nothing
wrong with a one-night stand.
These findings in a poll of 2,300 high school students in the Xuanwu district of the capital have stunned teachers and Chinese sex experts.
Chinese society has traditionally venerated virtue, while under
Communist Party rule since 1949 puritan abstinence has long been seen as proper behaviour. However, the survey shows a stunning shift in sexual mores.
6% of students surveyed had already had a sexual experience and the average age for students to
lose their virginity was 15.
About 30% of the respondents said teenage sex was fine, as long as it was consensual, and 55% said it depended on how much the two young people loved each other. There was no mention of moral considerations.
Such liberal attitudes have sparked concerns over safe sex, with more than 40% of respondents who had had sex saying they did not use contraceptives during their first sexual encounter.
Zhang Meimei, a professor at Capital Normal University in Beijing, who was involved in the latest survey, said: The new generation is open-minded about sex. We can only conclude that it is a result of a fast-changing society.
One
of the most important changes is a result of China's quarter-century-old "one-couple, one-child" family planning policy that has resulted in a generation of young people indulged by their parents and subject to little discipline and few rules at home.
In addition boys were much favoured over girls and so there is now a serious imbalance of the genders.
From the BBC
China is facing what medical researchers describe as a
"hidden epidemic" of sexually-transmitted diseases. Researchers from the United States and China say they have discovered that a significant number of Chinese adults are infected with chlamydia.
This is due to changing sexual practices,
and the researchers warn that the spread of chlamydia, a generally symptomless disease, could also blaze a path for higher HIV and Aids infection rates.
In parts of China, men in particular are swiftly becoming more prosperous, and as they get
richer, they are paying for sex more and more. A lot of businessmen and higher officials use going to sex workers as a part of their doing business, said William Parish from the University of Chicago, also one of the study's authors.
The
researchers are urging the Chinese authorities to implement safer sex programmes, especially aimed at the sex industry.
The Lancet also reports that China, which virtually eliminated syphilis in the 1960s and 70s, is now seeing the disease return with
alarming intensity. It reveals that reported rates have risen from 0.2 cases per 100,000 in 1993 to 5.7 cases per 100,000 in 2005.
So why is there such dramatic spread? It is being fuelled in part by rapid social change. The large numbers of
migrant workers in China, increasing prostitution and more extramarital sex, along with low condom use, are all key factors.
Chinese society is still deeply conservative with little open discussion about sex at any level. That severely inhibits
the exchange of information at all levels, from within families and sexual relationships to information campaigns in schools, universities and in the media.
There may even be a biological reason too for the rapid rise. Chinese adults, who are
sexually active now, had no exposure to syphilis for decades. Some scientists say that has left today's population with very little immunity to it.
