Not a Matter of ‘One-Night Stands’ : Attitude Toward Premarital Sex Is Changing in China

PEKING —  A sailor from Hong Kong used a gift of expensive perfume to seduce a young virgin from one of China’s coastal cities, and after she lost “what was priceless to her,” the girl went on to become a prostitute, according to a recently published Chinese magazine article.

She was later arrested and given an unspecified sentence. But the lesson, according to World of Women magazine, is for girls to “be vigilant . . . be on your guard against the perfumed lure.”

Chinese magazines are full of warnings against premarital sex these days, and recently disclosed surveys show why. The instances of sex before marriage and abortions among unmarried women are increasing, according to an official report last month by the domestic China News Agency.

The news agency said that in a survey conducted in Peking last year among more than 4,000 young males and females at least 20 years old, 40% admitted that they engaged in premarital sex.

The agency said another survey showed that 27.9% of the abortions in the Peking municipality were performed on young unmarried women. The figures from other major cities were consistent, the agency said.

The surveys come at a time when officials have begun to acknowledge that Chinese attitudes toward premarital sex are changing. Specialized publications openly have discussed problems of “sexual deprivation” that could lead to sex crimes. And one magazine, a sociological journal called Society, suggested a lowering of the legal age for marriage in China in order to take the pressure off couples who suffer from deprivation.

The authors of the news agency article pointed out, however, that there is a difference between “sexual liberation” in the West and premarital sex as it is practiced in China. In China, some couples in their late 20s and early 30s want to get married, but because of China’s crowded living conditions, they are still waiting for apartments to be assigned to them before they can. For such couples, premarital sex becomes almost inevitable.

The legal age for marriage in China is 22 for men and 20 for women, but in the cities, couples are often encouraged by authorities to marry at a later age.

A foreign student who has been studying at a Peking university for several years and who has a number of unmarried Chinese friends said that most premarital sex cases among students were not a matter of “one-night stands,” but of attempts to establish a “proper, long-term relationship.”

The foreign student said China’s one-time image as a puritanical country was never completely accurate. A much more uninhibited sexual life existed all along, the student said. The big difference, the student said, is that people are now talking more openly about it.

Young men and women are now much more open about displaying their affection for each other. A walk through almost any Chinese park on a summer day will reveal embracing Chinese couples on park benches and sometimes behind bushes. Many no longer seem to feel compelled to wait until it turns dark to show their affection.

In a recently published book titled “Half of Man Is Woman,” author Zhang Xianliang provides descriptions of sex that shocked some critics here. Foreign observers were certain that Zhang was heading for trouble with the authorities, but his views on this and other issues were prominently displayed in this week’s edition of the official magazine Peking Review.

In a lengthy article about Zhang, the writer is quoted as saying that his book is not just about sex, but is intended to describe pent-up human emotions during the turbulent years of the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76.

Premarital sex is not against the law in China. But at one time, any couple caught in the act by authorities could expect to be subjected to criticism at meetings with their work unit leaders and colleagues, be asked to write self-criticisms and come under pressure to get married.