A Call For Better Sex Education in Chinese Classrooms

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Last month, journalist Lijia Zhang penned a New York Times editorial detailing the dire state of sexual abuse in China and calling for the Chinese government to better educate its population on matters of sexuality.

Jemimah Steinfeld, writing for CNN, describes the sexual ignorance of the Chinese populace:

Sex education is taught inadequately in school and avoided by parents, resulting in generations of Chinese children growing up wondering if babies come out of armpits, or from the garbage dump, as others have also cited.

What’s the Big Idea?

Steinfeld notes that Chinese students are taught minimally about sex in school — really just the anatomical differences between the sexes.

The consequences of this sexual ignorance have caused a lot of trouble for many citizens of the world’s most populous country. Sexually transmitted infections are on the rise and the lack of knowledge about contraception has led to a major abortion crisis.

In addition (and going back to Zhang’s major point), the rates of sexual abuse in China are outrageously high. Steinfeld again:

A recent report from the United Nations revealed a shocking 22.2% of 998 Chinese males surveyed had raped a woman.

There is a growing movement among Chinese internet users to educate themselves and the rest of the internet-going population. Theirs is a belief that the old saying “knowledge is power” prescribes a solution to the Chinese sexuality crisis. The only problem is that, in a place like China, that formula reads more like “Knowledge + Action = Power” and that action needs to come from the government.