Students turn to sperm donation as a means to raise funds

Perhaps inspired by late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping's 1980s mantra that 'to get rich is glorious', some Guangdong university students have turned to a new method for making money. But members of the public have reacted with shock to newspaper reports that sperm donation, a virtual taboo among mainland men just a few years ago, is now regarded by some as a viable way to earn some cash.

More than 2,000 students from Guangzhou universities made deposits at the provincial sperm bank last year after it raised the 'subsidy' for qualified donors to 3,000 yuan (HK$3,556). The resulting frenzy saw students from South China University of Technology use up their donation quota a year early.

Far from being financially strapped and short of money to pay their tuition and living expenses, some undergraduates have been spending their sperm bank subsidies on new iPads or the latest mobile phones.

'I don't think there's anything wrong with it,' a 20-year-old law student said. 'It's the donors' rights to decide how to use the subsidy, and the public has no right to question their intention.'

The young man from the prosperous Guangdong city of Chaozhou said many of his classmates changed mobile phones nearly every semester, and most of their gadgets cost more than 2,000 yuan.

The materialism unleashed by Deng's economic reform and opening up was not restrained by any religious or social ethics, and has become amplified as it has passed down to the youth of today.