Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 8:42 am Post subject: China's dangerous sexual ignorance
In one cafe in southern China, pictures of naked women hang on the walls - a rare sight in this country.
But that is what this cafe is all about. It was set up by the City Government Reproductive Health Centre, and is an attempt to bring sex education into the open.
The centre's director, Tao Lin, showed me the services on offer - free condoms, and books and information about sex.
This drop-in sex education cafe is a pioneering concept, the first of its kind in China. Yet, it is almost completely empty.
Tao Lin admitted the hardest thing was breaking the taboo surrounding sex.
"Our challenge is that people are still too shy to talk about sex. It is difficult to know the right approach. People use tabloids or websites to find out information about sex, but it is often incorrect or unreliable," he said.
Out of sight
One survey has suggested that 75% of young Chinese learn about sex through pornography or porn websites, and computers certainly offer young people the chance to find out about sex in private.
In the back of the cafe, three young women are tapping away at keyboards.
"I want to find out about contraception, what choice there is, and how to use it," said 22-year-old pharmacology student Wu Dinliang, blushing.
She said she had never been taught about contraception.
Counsellor Tang Weiyao confirmed that even the most highly educated Chinese could be ignorant about sex.
"I had two university students who had been married for two years and hadn't managed to have children. They went to the hospital for a check-up and it emerged that they didn't even know the first thing about sex. They thought simply sleeping in the same bed would get her pregnant," she said.
For many other young people it is the opposite problem. They are exploring their sexuality without knowing how to protect themselves.
Lily Liu, from the British organisation, Marie Stopes, which has set up reproductive health centres in China, said one girl who came to one of the centres "was only about 19, and she had already had five abortions".
But Ms Liu added: "Attitudes are becoming more open, and they are also having consensual behaviour [sic]. In fact, their knowledge is far behind what they should know.
"I think one of the reasons is that we don't have very good sexual education in schools. It is still very much centred around physiological development."
The organisation has developed radio shows to fill in the knowledge gaps. In one skit, two happy sperm race towards an egg. But the ad has a serious point, warning that having many sexual partners and not using condoms is unsafe sexual behaviour.
Disease spread
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.
A question put to one radio agony uncle - "If I'm having lunch with an Aids carrier and I bite my tongue, can I catch Aids?" - is yet another warning sign that China's sex education system needs a revolution to keep pace with changes in sexual behaviour.
Otherwise, China will pay a high price for the ignorance of its youth.
I'm not in China but I just finished a paper recently on multicultural adoption in the United States. I was surprised to discover that China and Korea were the primary countries the international adoption agencies were obtaining these children from. Was mildly surprised to see that Thailand really wasn't even on the adoption radar untill 1999 which was the 1st year Siam hit the list of Top 20 countries.
I'm sure it does/did. Other countries are starting to dip into China's numbers. A big factor that goes into the adoption process is abies born drug free, and disabilty free. Not to mention the education and socioeconomic level of potential adoptive parents is higher.
Another factor that influences where the adopted babies come from is post-conflicts/wars, etc. Lots of babies adopted from Europe following WWII, and right down the line following the Korean War and the Vietnam conflict as well. I wonder, but doubt, we'll see alot of babies being adopted out of Iraq.
I'm sure it does/did. Other countries are starting to dip into China's numbers. A big factor that goes into the adoption process is abies born drug free, and disabilty free. Not to mention the education and socioeconomic level of potential adoptive parents is higher.
Another factor that influences where the adopted babies come from is post-conflicts/wars, etc. Lots of babies adopted from Europe following WWII, and right down the line following the Korean War and the Vietnam conflict as well. I wonder, but doubt, we'll see alot of babies being adopted out of Iraq.
For what reason will we not see a lot of babies being adopted out of Iraq?
I think it's a cultural thing. I haven't researched this from any angle other than multicultural. I can't answer in terms of sociopolitical.
My personal intuition is that Muslims might view multi-cultural adoption as an "Ethnic Genocide" type of thing. I'm not sure. I do know that the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) in the US feels exactly this way about whites adopting blacks.
Since the majority of people who adopt in the states are more liberal and economically upward mobile...I don't think you can attach a stigma of racism.
I agree completely that it is a cultural thing. I can't imagine an Iraqi willing to give a child for adoption-only in the most extreme case of having zero frinds or family--and that is most unlikely. _________________ Asia Expats Forum Expat Friends Dating
Put aside the fact about the failure of China's sex education and many people not using condoms, imagine what the world population would be like if there were no wars, diseases. famine or natural disasters to prevent the increase of our out of control population growth. I guess we will be living in a world with lots of people and very limited space. Just a thought. _________________ www.asialimo.com
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