Sex-Ed for Grown-ups Grows in China

Adult women in China are flocking to sex-ed seminars, says Reuters. In a culture much less candid about sex than America, some Chinese women reach adulthood without any of the fundamental sexual knowledge we gained reading Seventeen in 6th grade.

Jay Zheng, a Taiwanese professor quoted in the Reuters article, said women in big cities like Shanghai tend have modern attitudes and knowledge about sex, but women in rural areas "know nothing."

"I had absolutely no sex education at all. I thought adult male bodies look the same as baby boys'," said Sophia Hu, a 30-year-old lawyer. "I want to understand myself and the realities of sex."

One two-day sex seminar in downtown Shanghai costs 2,500 yuan (about $410), more than half the average monthly salary in the city. Yet a growing number of women are signing up, Reuters says.

There's no sex education in Chinese public schools, and family members are unlikely to talk to one another about sex. Research shows 74 percent of high school students in China have never talked about sex with their parents. However, a survey earlier this summer found that Chinese parents (at least the kind that take online surveys conducted by Beijing newspapers) overwhelmingly support sex ed in schools.

Some people say this lack of information is to blame for China's rising teen pregnancy rates and rising abortion rate among women under 25. There's also the opposite problem: In 2011, a married Chinese couple (both college graduates) made headlines for believing for three years that lying next to one another could result in pregnancy.

Photo: Ruzsasanyi