I lived in China for half a year as a visiting professor. I was in a major city, teaching mostly teachers of English, mostly married couples. And we talked about sex a little, as part of them apparently addressing issues they thought the foreign friend would want to know about, one child policy and such. They knew about birth control. You can buy the pill in the stores. I don't recall seeing condoms, but I must have. Students certainly kissed and made out in public. Yes, you would get a ticket for that. There were old professors who roamed the campus wearing special armbands whose job it was to pass out tickets for kissing and making out in the bamboo groves. The fines were quite low, around the cost of a single meat dish at a restaurant a student might frequent. When you went to the movies, you could see some steamy sex in Western films. I saw Indecent Proposal in a Chinese cinema, a packed house, complete with the scene in which Woody goes down on Demi. I think the entire audience lit cigarettes after that scene. Yes, this is illegal. But no one ever seems to care or do anything about it. So pirated Western movies with racy sex scenes are constantly available. I don't know how well The Great Firewall of China works, but I bet you can get sex information. So, in my experience, what is said here might be true for some few people in the cities and more often true in the countryside, but it in no way is like the China I saw ten years ago. Frankly we should all be glad that a couple so idiotic they can't intuit the workings of a condom is also dumb enough not to know where to stick the penis. They don't need to reproduce.

Crap! I forgot that Slate always strips out carriage returns when I use Safari on a Mac. Sorry about that vast gray blob of text.

The article made it clear that the uneducated teens she was referring to came from rural backgrounds.

(also, you can copy your text, then delete your post and rewrite it with corrections)(but only until someone replies then you can't delete anymore).

I was in China for 6 weeks in 1972 and this article is another deamonization of China, a bunch of half truths and lies. The Chinese people are very sophisticated. They have had great success with the one child policy and that could never be achieved without birth control institutions.

Of course, as anywhere else, including here, there are such people; there are prostitutes, drug dealers, murderers, schizophrenics etc. in China too, and what the heckl do you expect?

The US has opposed the one child policy, yet now Tsai claims a pathetic ignorance of birth control? You cannot have it both ways, at least not in the real world, only in THEATER.

Some of you people in the elite just enjoy seeing us running around in the catacombs of your hypocritical Catch 22s.

Um...the one-child policy (which is being relaxed in the coastal urban areas) was intended for married adults, not teens experimenting with sex. You can find teens in the USA who are not educated about the mechanics of sex. I'm sure you can find even more among the hundreds of millions in rural China.

I have trouble comprehending why you think Michelle Tsai, who is obviously very devoted to Chinese cultural issues, would want to lie and demean the Chinese people with falsehoods.

I think the article made it clear that abortion, rather than birth control, was a frequent means of adherence to the one-child policy. Not saying that's good or bad, but the point seemed to be that birth control was neglected.

I certainly don't opposed the one-child policy, I think it was a great step for the Chinese to take as a means of attempting to control their population. I think India ought to emulate them, in fact.

ps - I'll admit I loved the phrase "running around in the catacombs of your hypocritical Catch 22s," even though I'm not quite sure what it means...:)

Well, I TOTALLY disagree...abortion is not the maintstay of the one child policy, birth control is, and they have a lot of institutions for that.

In fact, they have a lot of great institutions...I don't know if they still have it, but they had musical instruments for WORKERS at the hotels we stayed at...they literally were practising at night, and we asked what it was, and it was freaking employees doing their weekly symphony! The music was not bad, either, it was pretty good.

They had a LOT of great things institutionally that we don't have and that we never hear about.

Candoxx, I live in China right now, and I can tell you that there are many Chinese youths who are completely unaware of the basic facts most kids learn in a sex education course. Yes, the Chinese government is trying to promote birth control and family planning, but the reality is that many people on the "front lines" are either unwilling or unable to give kids the facts they need to make good decisions for themselves.

Condoms are readily available basically everywhere. Right by the cash register where the candy is in America, in a big display with lube and pregnancy tests. Hell, in the past several weeks, they've started to sell vibrators as well. Unfortunately, a lot of kids get bad information from each other. A Chinese friend on mine got pregnant a couple years ago because her boyfriend had told her that the rhythm method was completely reliable, and she believed him. He mentioned that it wasn't that big of a deal because abortion was so cheap.

This has nothing to do with cultural education. It has nothing to do with the moral correctness of the one child policy. If has to do with the current lack of good sex education for Chinese youth.

Also, six weeks in 1972 don't make you an expert on the current social situation in the country. It's completely different now.

I don't find Michelle Tsai trying to "deamonize" China at all. Nice story about the worker musicians Candoxxx. Thanks.