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Life in China Love and Sex on Campus
Life in China Love and Sex on Campus | Love and Sex on Campus |
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| China | |
| Wednesday, 18 October 2006 | |
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Back in the 70’s, the most common dating scene would probably be somewhat like this: a couple sitting with each other, at least 1 meter distance apart, each holding a red book. An hour later if you happened to walk past them again, you would probably still see them keeping the same gesture. How have things changed now? In the evening, just walk around the 1.17 square kilometres campus, under the moon, along the lake, behind the bushes, and you'll find that young couples couldn’t be sitting any closer, kissing and hugging passionately. They seem to like the darkness of the night, where they feel a safe shield from social interference and judgement, in which they can express their love freely. Just to add a little background: in those years, intimacy was not allowed in the public space. That’s why feeding each other in canteens is banned at some of the universities, the reason being that it affects social decency. Kissing in the public was pretty new in society as well, although there are more and more young people doing that now. But under the common social values, a good girl was not supposed to do such things in public. Not to mention an unmarried couple living together! That’s a huge shame for the girl. A good girl should always cherish her reputation as pure as jade. They are supposed to be virgin before getting married. Thus there were so many underground activities - e.g. it would not be a scandal, if you disguised through sharing a flat with one of your best mates, and have your girlfriend occasionally visit. I had a friend complained to me that, sharing a little flat with his mate, whose girlfriend had make several steamy screams over some occasions while my poor friend was trying to concentrate on his revision for the exams... I have also had another friend complain to me for some extreme behaviour in the male hall of residence. Sharing a dorm with 9 other young men, my poor friend’s daring roommate invited his girlfriend to stay over, who had become a semi-resident of the male dorm. As you probably are aware, there are only bunk beds in the room. As chance may have it, this couple occupied the upper bed and were too passionate to not do any intimate activities most nights... I can not imagine anything more annoying or amusing than that. As there were too many couples wondering around the campus, occupying the obvious dark spots, some couples got a unique idea of where to date each other — the least travelled — the roof-top of the college building. There was once a boiling episode among university students in around 2002 or 2003. A couple of students from another university were caught having sex on the roof-top of their college building. The video was subsequently posted on the internet which, as rumour said it, resulted in them eventually being kicked out of the university. I can only say the people in the stories were pretty brave and daring. The girls were not to blame. However, I am sick of reading all the debate on the university forums, where many men ask the same question — what if one day you discover that your wife/girlfriend is not a virgin? The response has been always similar — difficult to accept (but they would still happily have sex with their existing girlfriend! Shameless)  Please excuse me for revealing only the darker side. Don’t get it wrong, in those years, 80% of the university couples were so pure. Their main activities would be: playing some sports together (badminton, tennis, or jogging), going to the lecture hall together, doing the evening revision together in the classroom, going to canteens together every meal. However, it was only because the majority was so innocent, that those occasional cases became a huge issue and gossip material. Imagine those things taking place in a western country — come on, there are so many that you cannot even not be bothered to point them out.Hui is now away, but will return in November with her next installment. Stay tuned! |
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