1 “SEX, sex, sexual intercourse, penis,penis, vagina.” More than 150 undergraduates are sitting in a lecture hall at China Agricultural University in Beijing, shouting loudly. Many are sexually active, or soon will be. Yet for most it is the first sex education class they have attended.
中国农业大学北京校区的讲堂里坐了超过
150
位本科生，他们齐声说着类似于“性、性爱、性交、阴茎、阴道”等词语。他们中有多人正处于性欲旺盛时期，有的人也即将迎来这一时期。但是对他们大多数人来说，这是他们上的第一堂性教育课。
2 Their instructor hopes that shouting such words will help youngsters talk more openly about sex. Lu Zhongbao, a 24-year-old forestry student, says he was told as a child that he “emerged froma rock”. When he started having sex with his university girlfriend he had little idea about contraception. This evening he arrived an hour early armed with another question: will masturbating damage his health?
教授这节课的人希望能通过将这类词语大声说出口，能够让这些年轻人更自如讨论两性话题。
24
岁林业学在读卢忠宝（音译）说他小时候问自己从哪里来的时候，得到的回复是“从石头里蹦出来的”。当他开始和他的大学女友性交时，他对于避孕毫无概念。今晚他提前一个小时来到讲堂，还带着另一个问题：“手淫会损害健康吗？”
3 It is not just China’s economy that has loosened up since 1979. The country is in the midst of a sexual revolution. A 2012 study found that more than 70% of Chinese people have sex before marriage. Other polls put that figure lower but consistently indicate that over the past 30 years, more young Chinese are doing it, with more partners, at a younger age. But a lack of sex education means that many are not protecting themselves, resulting in soaring abortion rates and a rise in sexually transmitted diseases.
中国在
1979
年后开放的不仅是经济层面。现在，中国更是正在经历一场性文化改革。
2012
年的一个研究表明，超过
70%
的中国民众曾有过婚前性行为。其他研究的数字可能相对较低，但是依然表明在过去
30
年中，中国有过婚前性行为的人数量越来越多，性伴侣数量在上升，而年龄却在下降。但是因为缺乏性教育，许多人都没有在性交过程中保护自己，导致堕胎率的飙升以及性传染病的传播。
4 The Communist Party has stuck its nose into people’s bedrooms for 30 years through its harsh family-planning policies.Yet taboos on sex before marriage prevailed, the result of paternalistic—not religious—values about female chastity, with a dose of Communist asceticism thrown in. Pre-marital sex fell foul of a range of laws, including the catch-all charge of “hooliganism”, only scrapped in 1997.
共产党
30
年来通过严厉的计划生育政策将权力延伸到人们的卧室里。女性贞洁的传统家庭观念（但这并非宗教原因所致）和共产党禁欲主义相结合，使得婚前性行为依然是禁忌。而婚前性行为与某些法律有所冲突，其中包括定义模糊的“流氓罪”，这项罪名在
1997
年才被废除。
5 The social climate remains chilly. Most news items about sex involve scandals or crimes. Schools ban pupils from dating and many deploy “morality patrols” to root out flirting or frolicking couples.Sex outside wedlock is not illegal but children born to unmarried mothers face obstacles obtaining a hukou, or household residency, that entitles them to subsidised education and welfare. Yet with greater freedom from their parents, more money and increasing exposure to permissive influences from abroad, China’s youth are clearly separating sex from procreation.
社会对此态度依然非常淡漠。许多与性有关的新闻都涉及丑闻或犯罪行为。学校禁止学生约会，同时其中许多会有安排“道德巡逻队”来根除情侣调情嬉戏的现象。婚前性行为虽然不违法，但是未婚妈妈的孩子在获得户口（所在地户籍）时会面临障碍，而户籍是人们获得国家教育和福利的前提。现在的中国年轻人比起上一辈更加自由、更为富有，同时不断受到国外文化的消极影响，他们会将性爱与生殖行为分得很清楚。
6 Education on the subject is compulsory in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan—societies that have some cultural similarities with China. But most Chinese schools teach only basic anatomy.
在日本、韩国和台湾等这些社会文化与中国相仿的地区，性教育都是必修课。但大多数中国学校仅仅只会教授基本人体结构知识。
7 This is not entirely for lack of trying.Pilot campaigns in Shanghai and Beijing schools in the 1980s were incorporated into a nationwide programme in 1988 but it was never implemented. In 2008 the Ministry of Education included sex education in the national health and hygiene curriculum. The barriers are not just prudery. Like football, fashion and other teenage pastimes, sex (and learning about it) is seen as a distraction from studies. “Sex is not an exam subject,” says Sheng Yingyi, a 21-year-old student.
但是性教育的缺乏并不意味着没有尝试。
20
世纪
80
年代，北京和上海的学校曾经就此开展过试点项目。
1988
年，试点项目合并到一个全国性的项目中，但该项目从未实施。
2008
年，教育部将性教育写进健康卫生教育课程中。但是实行的障碍不止在于过分的拘谨。和踢足球、追求时尚以及其他青少年消遣一样，性和性教育常常是干扰正常学习的因素。
21
岁学生盛莹益（音译）说：“性教育不是考试科目。”
8 Where classes happen, most students are merely given a textbook. “Happy Middle School Students”, written for 12- to15-year-olds in 2006 and still widely used, refers to sperm meeting egg without describing the mechanics of intercourse. A more explicit volume forprimary-school pupils published in 2011, which did explain how sperm were delivered, was criticised for being pornographic.
基本所有学校开展性教育课的方式就是给学生一本书，名叫《快乐中学生》。这本
2006
年出版的教科书专为
12
到
15
岁的学生设计，到现在为止依然被许多学校用作性教育教材。但书中只讲述了精子与卵子的融合，但没有讲述性交的机制。另一本为小学生设计的教材于
2011
年出版，书中直接了当地揭示了精子是如何进入女性体内，但是也因为这样这本教材被批包含色情内容。
9 The dominant message is to abstain. A 2013 review by UNESCO and Beijing Forestry University noted the prevalence of “terror-based” sex education, with content largely focused on the horrors of pregnancy, abortion and HIV. Earlier this month a university in Xi’an incentral China ran a course entitled “No Regrets Youth” where students received a “commitment card”, essentially a pledge to remain a virgin until marriage.
对此，社会的主流声音是远离性。由联合国教科文组织和北京林业大学于
2013
年联合发布的研究显示，现在的性教育大多建立在对性的恐惧之上，性教育的内容大概是意外怀孕、流产和艾滋病的可怕之处。这个月早些时候，西安（中国中部）的一所大学开启了一个名为“青春无悔”的课程，要求学生签署“承诺卡”，要求学生结婚前禁止性行为。
10 There is almost no discussion in Chinese schools about love, communication or trust, how to say no or to deal with harassment or abuse. Homosexuality is not discussed, and Chinese parents rarely talk with their children about sex. Peng Xiaohui of Central China Normal University, who runs sex-education classes (including the one at China Agricultural University), had excrement thrown at him last year because of the work he does. Several Chinese and foreign NGOs have tried to fill the gap, but many are now wary after the month-long detention this year of five feminists who had launched a campaign against sexual harassment. Most Chinese youths findout about sex from the internet and online pornography.
在中国的学校中，没有人会讨论有关爱情、沟通或信任以及怎么样反抗和处理面临的性骚扰和性侵犯行为。同性恋问题没有人会提及，而且父母也很少会和子女谈论性的话题。华中师范大学的彭晓辉教授性教育课程（其中就包括在中国农业大学教课），他去年就因所从事的工作被泼粪。有几个中外非政府组织一直尝试弥补这一方面的空缺，但是由于今年五位女权主义者因发起反对性侵犯行为的运动后遭到政府长达一个月的拘留，这些组织现在对此有所担忧。大多数中国的年轻人通过网络和色情网站了解性知识。
11 That does not work well. Because of the mismatch between lust and learning, around a quarter of all sexually active women under 24 get pregnant by mistake. Half of them do not use prophylactics, some because they know little about them, others because of insufficient access.
但是这不是件好事。因为欲望和学习的目的不匹配，在
24
岁以下性欲旺盛的女性中，有四分之一意外怀孕。他们中有一半人不使用避孕药，因为有的人对此并不了解，还有的人无法正常购买。
12 The pill is not widely used in China,even by married women. The government encourages the use of intra-uterine devices which provide less chance of human error. Until last year advertising condoms on television was banned (abortion, by contrast, is widely promoted).Convenience stores sell condoms, but they are not always available near college campuses.
避孕药很少为中国女性所服用，即使是已婚女性也是如此。政府鼓励夫妻使用宫内装置来减少人为失误。长期以来避孕套的电视广告禁止播出，直到去年才解禁（但是堕胎手术的广告却大规模存在）。便利店有避孕套出售，但不是每个校园附近都有便利店。
13 Those who do use prophylactics often use them wrongly: a 2014 study found that a quarter of under-17s who got pregnant had used some form of birth control. There is also a flourishing trade in“counterfeit condoms”, shoddily made sheaths being passed off as popular name brands. As a result sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise; 91% of new HIV cases are from sexual contact.
而那些服用避孕药的人使用方法却不得当。一个
2004
年的研究显示，
