By Mark Hiew, Board Member, Advocates for Youth

One of the less-covered stories within Western media’s ever-growing coverage of China, that rising giant looked upon with equal measures of suspicion and fear, is its continuing sexual revolution. Over my past two years here, I have consistently had any lingering preconceptions of conservative Confucian mores shaken by numerous sites: the multitude of sex toy stores, the open affection of young lesbian couples walking along the street, by high-school lovers making out in a club…in front of the guy’s parents, no less! This is a country modernizing as much in the bedroom as it is on the work floor.

In conversation with a local friend about she and her friends’ sexuality, I found it fascinating comparing their own experiences with those of friends back home in the States. As a high school student in Shanghai, she lost her virginity at 17 while living in her own apartment (her parents lived in another city). Like many young people, she had received no formal sex ed from either school or family. However, when her mother later found out, instead of responding with anger or threats, she gave my friend “the talk:” how to have safe sex, to always keep a condom in her purse, and so on. She tells me that her mom’s response is rare amongst her friends, but still, I was surprisingly impressed by such pragmatic, empowering parenting.