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China news tagged with: “sex education” (17)

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China Censorship Primer: Just Say “No” to Female Orgasms

Bruce Humes writes in his blog:

Don’t let media in the West fool you—talking about sex in China is not taboo. But apparently references to female genitalia and orgasms are still big no-nos.

To see how such touchy subjects are handled in Chinese media, let’s take a look at what happened to the Guardian’s “China to Open First Sex Theme Park” (May 15, 2009) when it was translated and published in Cankao Xiaoxi.

As noted in my earlier updates on Cankao Xiaoxi, this daily newspaper is a respected Chinese-language digest of the world press with a long history, and in many cities across China it sells out every day before noon. Virtually no English is used and no content is added. But references deemed unbecoming to China’s image are often deleted.

To show you how censorship/repackaging works in the People’s Republic, the Guardian’s original news item is fully reproduced below. Note that both uses of “genitalia” in the original, which are gender-neutral, have for some reason been rendered in Chinese as “phallus” (男根).

Read more of Bruce’s post here. Thanks to Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber for the link.

See also a report from Reuters about the tearing down of the sex theme park before it opened:

Love Land, set to open in October in the southwestern city of Chongqing, featured exhibits on sexual history and how-to workshops, the China Daily newspaper reported last week.

A picture of the park entrance showed a signboard with the park’s name straddled by a giant pair of women’s legs topped by a red thong.

But the plans left Chongqing officials red-faced. They ordered the park torn down over the weekend, the China Daily reported.

» Read more
- May 17, 2009 2:59 PM
Parents Too Shy to Talk About Sex

Most kids aren’t learning about sex from their parents, according to a report released Wednesday. The All-China Women’s Federation polled 5,000 students aged six to 17 and 6,500 parents about how they communicating about sex, a subject still taboo in much of China.

The group found that children want to learn about sex from their parents, but most parents polled say they were too embarrassed to discuss the subject.
From China Daily:

For example, 54 percent of parents said they had never talked with their children about how to deal with sexual harassment, while less than 30 percent said they had provided only limited advice.

Similarly, on the topic of the physiological changes that happen during puberty, 42 percent of parents said they had not discussed the subject, while 40 percent said they had given only a little information.

A poll of Hong Kong residents released in January found that nearly seventy percent believe sex education should be mandatory in schools.

More than half of the parents surveyed in the federation’s poll, which polled residents from 28 cities and counties in 10 provinces and regions, said they want to learn how to discuss sex issues with their children.
» Read more
- February 28, 2008 12:59 AM
Sexology Association Gets Six-Month Ban

Xinhua reportsthe China Sexology Association (CSA), a non-governmental organization and academic society promoting reproductive health, has received a six-month ban for allegedly receiving profits from group activities. According to the report, the Ministry of Civil Affairs started investigating the group last month and found that it had been engaging in business activities against regulations:

A MCA investigation revealed the association had been carrying out illegal activities beyond its service scope. These included issuing improper product certificates and TV promotions, listing some brands as CSA-supervised or -recommended, and using membership-fee receipts to collect administration overheads and charges in violation of relevant rules.

Since the illegal undertakings were in contravention of the ” Registration Regulation of Social Institutions”, the MCA confiscated all the CSA stamps and certifications in a accordance with the law. The body had no authority to offer certification or approval to companies.

The CSA was founded in 1994 as an academic society and was not allowed to profit from business activities. However, evidence revealed it had taken part in a series of business activities, and even compiled business contracts where it could reap as much as 60to 80 percent in profits from the exercises.

» Read more
- February 11, 2008 2:06 AM
Abortions Increase As School Starts – Liang Qiwen

From China Daily:

Doctors in South China’s Guangdong Province observed an increase in the number of female students visiting hospitals in search of abortions during the weeks leading up to the start of school.

Some hospitals in Dongguan, a city in the province, reported two to three times as many abortion requests in the week before the start of new semester, which began on September 1, than during other times of the year. Fridays and Saturdays are usually the busiest days.

Most of the young girls seeking abortions were between 16 and 22 years old. About half were high school students. [Full Text]
» Read more
- September 20, 2007 10:16 AM
The Personal Affairs of 6,000 Chinese Citizens – Ma Jun

From Y Weekend and translated by EastSouthWestNorth:

What has changed with the sexual activities and relationships of the Chinese people over the past six years? Recently, the published research results at the Chinese Renmin University Sexual Sociology Institute website challenged the general beliefs of many people. During an interview with reporter from Y Weekend, Professor Pan Suiming said that this showed the worth of sociological research.

More than 6,000 people around the nation participated in this sex survey. The response rate was top in the world because the survey respondents included old men in remote places and middle-aged housewives in hutongs. The survey questionnaire covers extra-martial affairs, sexual preferences and other private matters. [Full Text]

[Image: Professor Pan Suiming, from Yweekend.com]
» Read more
- August 6, 2007 11:15 AM
Talking Sex On The Factory Floor In China – Medical News Today

MedicalNewsToday.com discusses a recent initiative to provide sex education and contraceptives to women workers at a cell phone factory in Shanghai to battle high rates of unsafe abortions carried out by unmarried female migrant workers as well as a general lack of knowledge on contraceptives and STD prevention:

Young, single women in urban China are aware of contraceptive methods but some may be too shy to ask for them, research published in the online open access journal BMC Health Services Research reveals. Young women want more information, but need private and anonymous family planning because of judgemental attitudes surrounding premarital sex and particularly premarital pregnancy.

Encouraging contraceptive use among young migrant workers in China to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases is no easy task, according to the study by Xu Qian and other researchers from Fudan University, Shanghai, China and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK. Prompted by their research published in 2004, which showed a high percentage of urban women had experienced abortion prior to marriage, Xu Qian’s team targeted young female workers (aged 16-30) at a Shanghai mobile phone factory. They offered lectures, information leaflets and a free workplace contraceptive service led by the factory’s doctors, who received extra training. [Full text]
» Read more
- June 5, 2007 12:28 PM
Sex Ed In School An Akward Topic – Xinhua

From Xinhua via Shanghai Daily:

A Winter sex education workshop for primary school pupils and their parents opened in Chaoyang District of Beijing on Thursday. When the teacher wrote the question “Where did I come from?” on the blackboard, the children had lots of answers.

“My mom found me on a hillside!”
“I was taken out of my mama’s tummy!”

Only 39 youngsters attended the workshop accompanied by one or both of their parents. Sex education is not compulsory in schools and many colleges do their best to ignore it….[Full Text]
» Read more
- February 2, 2007 10:49 PM
Student-written book teaches sex – Xinhua

From Xinhua:

Wang Ji, a grade-four journalism student at the Guizhou Institute of Minorities, started writing the book two years ago.

Covering such topics as the human body, pregnancy, love and cohabitation, the book is expected to be published by the Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House. Before its unidentified release, the book’s handwritten copy circulated widely among students, parents and teachers.

“I got the idea to write a sex education book for college students three years ago when I saw many schoolmates begin to get involved in love affairs,” Wang told the Xinhua News Agency. “However, many of them are almost illiterate about sex , so pornographic websites, and magazines became their sex teachers.”…[Full Text]

Photo: Wang Ji (Left) discusses her book with classmates at her dorm.
» Read more
- January 21, 2007 5:11 PM
Student Survey Stumps Sex Specialists – Wang Shanshan

From China Daily:

High school students in Beijing are far more promiscuous than their teachers or parents think, according to a survey conducted in a city district.

More than half of those polled said there was nothing wrong with a one-night stand; and 6.2 percent admitted they already had a sexual encounter, according to the results released recently…

Teenage pregnancies have been on the rise in recent years; and under-age girls account for about a quarter of the 1.5 million abortions on the mainland each year.
[Full Text]
» Read more
- January 10, 2007 9:24 PM
Guidance needed to prevent teen pregnancies – China Daily

From China Daily:

Many parents or teachers might find my advice outrageous, and some think it will encourage sexual experimentation,” said Wang Xianglin, an expert who started as a volunteer at the China Population Communication and Education Centre /‰∏≠ÂõΩ‰∫∫Âè£ÂÆ£‰º†ÊïôËÇ≤‰∏≠ÂøÉ(PCEC) three years ago. The PCEC is also called Green Apple House.

“But pretending it is not happening will not help,” said Wang, who majored in psychology and medicine and is editor-in-chief of a Beijing-based magazine Care For Girl. She works for the Green Apple hotline twice a week…

In a Nanfang Daily survey conducted with 192 students at a senior middle school in Guangzhou, capital of South China’s Guangdong Province, 17.7 said they had had a sexual experience, and 38.7 per cent had used condoms. [Full Text]
» Read more
- September 5, 2006 11:57 PM
China’s “comment posting culture”, free speech and the Li Yinhe controversy – David Bandurski

From China Media Project:

As the latest public personality in China to be verbally attacked en masse by web users and become a media hot topic, sociologist Li Yinhe (ÊùéÈì∂Ê≤≥, blog ) is feeling the force of creeping social change in the country. She is playing an unenviable role, you might say, in the dress rehearsal for free speech in China, the revolutionary idea that all Chinese have the right to speak their own mind and make their own decisions about what is truth.

On July 21 Li Yinhe, a sociologist and well-known expert on sex and gender (who proposed for a third time this year that gay marriage be legalized in China), presented a talk in Nanjing in which she reportedly discussed everything from one-night stands to incest. Nanjing’s Jinling Evening News ran what most now agree was a news report with a negative spin on July 23, and suggested Li had said in her talk that she had a “desire for multiple romantic relationships” (Li later told Y Weekend her words had been taken out of context, that she was expressing not a personal wish but rather a hope for social diversity). [Full Text]
» Read more
- August 15, 2006 8:56 AM
Experts urge sex education – Cai Wenjun

From Shanghai Daily:

Saving China’s ancient sex culture and promoting more effective sex education were under discussion yesterday by experts at a summit ahead of an adult products exhibition.

Shanghai University professor Liu Dalin, a well-known sexologist and the founder of the Ancient Chinese Sex Culture Museum in Tongli, Jiangsu Province, said he was considering moving the museum back to its former home of Shanghai because of restrictions on advertising and financial difficulties.

Fan Minsheng, vice director of the Shanghai Sex Education Association, said sex education should cover all demographics, from children to adults. “Sex education is not public food, which is made for people of all ages,” Fan said. “Western countries try to clearly define pornographic products and sex education materials, but China still lags behind in this aspect. The ranking of movies and different sex education products is a useful way to help young people’s healthy development.” …[Full Text]
» Read more
- August 10, 2006 11:04 AM
Less anatomy, more morality in sex education efforts – China Daily

From China Daily via Xinhua News Agency:

Guangzhou education officials have called for a rethink in sex education efforts, shifting away from textbook-based anatomy teaching and focusing more on morals and relationships.

To protect young people and society as a whole from HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancy, the capital city of South China’s Guangdong Province began introducing sex education classes to children as young as kindergarten in 2004. [Full Text]
» Read more
- June 26, 2006 7:42 AM
Louisa Lim: China’s dangerous sexual ignorance

From the BBC:

High levels of unprotected sex among young people are ringing alarm bells. Figures over the last few years show sky-rocketing rates of sexual transmitted infection [STI], according to Zhao Pengfei from the World Health Organization.

“We see, every year, 30 to 40% increases in the reported STI cases. Once HIV-Aids is introduced into that group it can be dangerous for the young generation,” he said.

A recent survey has suggested that one fifth of people in China have never heard of Aids.
» Read more
- May 24, 2005 11:38 AM
Xinran: Sex in Chinese Culture

In the Guardian, Xinran writes:

And I am not joking when I tell you that, even now, many university students believe babies come out of their mothers’ tummy buttons. China started sex education in primary schools in 2002. I was curious to know who the first group of teachers would be. I was told that some were politics teachers – that is very good, I thought, at least students won’t take long to learn about sexual politics once they’re teenagers. Some were sports teachers – that is not bad either, I thought, I could see the link between sport and sexuality, and there’s a poetic link in Chinese culture. But some teachers were made to do it as no one else would take the job.
» Read more
- May 6, 2005 9:19 AM