|
China lifts student marriage ban
January 26, 2005
China is to lift a 50-year ban against university students getting married or
having children - a restriction which has forced them to make painful choices,
state media said today.
For decades students contemplating marriage or who become pregnant have faced a
dilemma of whether to give up studying or delay their wedding, or stay in
school and have an abortion. But the Xinhua news agency cited an official from
the Chinese Ministry of Education saying yesterday the restriction would be
lifted, although it did not say when.
Fan Yi, an official with the ministry's student affairs department, said a new
draft regulation on management of college students will no longer prohibit
graduate and undergraduate students from marriage and childbearing.
The ministry began drafting a new regulation on college student management as
early as in 1996. Fan did not disclose when the draft regulation will be
passed.
Most graduate students oppose the ban, according to a survey conducted by
Peking University's Centre for Women's Law and Legal Services, Xinhua said.
Of 467 graduate students surveyed from 10 universities, 57 per cent were
against the ban on childbearing, while 12 per cent were in favour of it and
others were undecided.
A third of 951 undergraduates from 16 universities surveyed opposed the
marriage ban, while 17.7 per cent supported it. About half the students were
non-committal.
China views higher education as sacred and many universities still treat
students as children, requiring them to return to dorms by a curfew.
The schools also discourage dating, although many realise it is unrealistic as
China's young adults are not only dating but experimenting with sex much more
than before.
Comment on this story,
click here.
Copyright 1999-2004, Asian Sex Gazette. All rights reserved. No
content may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission.
Please contact us via the link below for re-print and syndication policies.
|
|
Chinese
university students condone premarital sex: survey
10-19-2004
China
spurns sexual revolution on campus
10-13-2004
|
