A 15-year-old girl and her boyfriend are studying alone together on a hot summer day when she removes her jacket and clings to his shoulder. What should he do?
In Hong Kong, the authorities advise the young man to continue studying or to seek a diversion, including badminton, to avoid premarital sex and other “intimate behaviors.”
Critics, including lawmakers and sex educators, say that the Chinese territory’s new sex education materials are regressive. But top officials are not backing down, and the standoff is getting kind of awkward.
“Is badminton the Hong Kong answer to sexual impulses in schoolchildren?” the South China Morning Post newspaper asked in a headline over the weekend.
Hong Kong teenagers find it all pretty amusing. A few said on social media that the officials behind the policy have their “heads in the clouds.” Others have worked it into sexual slang, talking about “friends with badminton” instead of “friends with benefits.”
The sex ed materials were published last week by the Education Bureau in a 70-page document that includes worksheets for adolescents and guidance for their teachers. The document emphasizes that the lessons are not designed to encourage students to “start dating or having sexual behaviors early in life.” It also advises people in a “love relationship” to fill out a form setting the limits of their intimacy.
“It is normal for people to have sexual fantasies and desires, but we must recognize that we are the masters of our desires and should think twice before acting, and control our desires instead of being controlled by them,” the document says.
The curriculum, which replaces an older one, explains that while some adolescents masturbate, sexual impulses can generally be controlled by avoiding “publications or media” that stimulate them.It also recommends exercise and other activities that “draw attention away from undesirable activities,” and warns students to dress appropriately and avoid wearing “sexy clothing” that could lead to “visual stimulation.”
Critics say the guidelines are irresponsible. Diana Kwok, professor of gender studies at the Education University of Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post that the authorities should not emphasize the need to control sexual development, but instead teach young people how to face or understand it.
Doris Tsz-Wai Chong, the executive director of the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women, a Hong Kong nonprofit that works in local schools, said that the new sex ed guidance was inadequate for its young audience. That is partly because it includes gender stereotypes, she said, including the idea that women see opposite-sex friendships as purely platonic while men see them as potential romantic opportunities.
Ms. Chong said her organization was also concerned about the warning over “sexy clothing.”
“Teaching the idea that someone’s choice of clothing can ‘visually stimulate’ or provoke sexual assault perpetuates harmful rape myths,” she added.
Officials aren’t flinching. Christine Choi, the education secretary, framed the guidance on Sunday as a kind of moral imperative and a way of protecting young people, particularly those who are 12 to 14.
“We should teach them to take responsibility for themselves correctly, to understand
how to take care of themselves and respect others,” she said in a television interview. “When they grow up, they will face a more complex society and environment.”
John Lee, Hong Kong’s leader, described the materials as good for the territory’s long-term future on Sunday. “I think that social culture has to be created collectively,” he said.
The Education Bureau defended the curriculum in a statement, saying that its prime objective was to help 12- to 14-year-olds “cope with the various physiological and psychological consequences of premarital sex, including emotional distress, legal liabilities, infection of sexually transmitted diseases and unwed pregnancy.” The curriculum was developed by academics from local universities who specialize in high school sex ed, then piloted in high schools and reviewed by teachers and school social workers, the bureau added.
“The curriculum module should be read as a whole and within context,” it said.
Young people in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan often use slang to talk about sex, just like their peers around the world. If your date asks if you want to go back to their place to “watch my cat do back-flips,” don’t say you weren’t warned.
Now, thanks to Hong Kong’s Education Bureau, new slang is in play. “I want to play badminton with you” will never be the same again.
(Story: nytimes.com)