Sex Education
When Western sex education is thriving under the push of the “sexual revolution”, Chinese sex education is stagnating.
I recently read a book by Eileen – “The Second Incense Burnt”. The book mainly tells the story of a widowed mother who intentionally failed to educate her two daughters about sex in order to keep them under her control. As a result, both daughters accused their husbands of being “beasts” and eventually divorced, leading to the destruction of their marriages
What exactly does this book criticize? It is the issue of sexual education, which still exists and has not improved to this day, and in fact, it has not even been recognized by some people. The entire tragedy lies in the lack of sexual education. Even now, 100 years later, we still have news stories like this – a couple of doctorate-holding spouses who had been married for a long time and had not been able to conceive, only to find out that both of them had always assumed that as long as they were in the same bed, they would become pregnant. While this is an extreme example, non-extreme cases are happening all around us.
Many parents and schools are still very cautious about sex education now, trying to avoid it whenever possible. How many of you have learned about sex education in a proper and legitimate way? I think it’s very few. The problem is that girls are often educated to know nothing about sex and are too innocent. They only realize the harm after they have been hurt. Boys, on the other hand, are not allowed to learn about it, making it very mysterious. The more mysterious it is, the more curious they become. After too much suppression, there will be an explosion. Even today, sex cannot be openly discussed, but it is a very normal thing in adult life.
A girl who is overprotected to the point of losing protection is particularly reticent about sexual knowledge. Maybe you think you are protecting her and preserving her innocence, but in reality, her life cannot be avoided from this aspect, and there will come a day when she has to face it. So the so-called “protection” is actually a blank space, which could have been orderly, but left unattended, and it will become a hidden danger in the future. Therefore, the underlying reason for excessive protection is often the loss of protection.
4 replies to “Sex Education”
Leave a reply to Amanda Archer
Oh wow Victoria, this is interesting. A very intriguing 2nd post. Its cool that stemmed from your own personal readings. It think its something worth exploring but I imagine that there would be a lot of cultural norms to navigate through here (more so than the usual ones we have to content with regarding education already). You mentioned the differences between the western and Chinese view of sex education – I’m wondering if it might be an all (or most) of Asia difference. Its still pretty taboo in Thailand, where I am at now. In Singapore where I was previously, there’s positive traction but still not entirely open.
It’d be intriguing to build a project around this. Happy to contribute ideas if you do. All the best!
Thank you so much for your comments! I really value the information you provided, which is very beneficial to me.
I would like to add on this to thread too. I think it is such a vital theme to explore within school education. Happy to discuss this more with you Meiling & Caleb!
Hi Victoria, this is really important and valuable research. In 1994, I taught English to undergrads in Beijing. I didn’t talk to students about taboo subjects (that was off limits) but they were keen to ask me about how events in Beijing were portrayed in the west. I would be happy to set up a call to answer questions you may have about Beijing in the 90’s.