Revised law on mandatory sex education sparks debate on sexuality in China

From 2021, schools should conduct ‘age-appropriate sex education for minors’, helping them protect themselves against abuse and sexual harassment

China remains cautious in making education changes, especially on sexuality, according to Unesco Beijing

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Sex-education counsellor Ge Yeyi leads a sex education class in Cixi, Zhejiang province. Photo: VCG via Getty Images

Published: 3:59pm, 26 Oct 2020Updated: 10:46pm, 26 Oct 2020

Minutes before Professor Liu Wenli was set to speak in a webinar on the development of sex education in China, she learned that the country’s top legislative body had passed an amendment making sex education mandatory from next year.

She quickly added a new slide on the change, according to her research group’s WeChat account, with the amended law mandating the inclusion in school syllabuses of “sex education”.

Those three Chinese characters can also be translated as “sexuality education”, which Liu and her fellow advocates have long fought for. In 2017, a textbook series she edited was removed from a school after complaints about explicit content and that the books normalised homosexuality.

On October 17, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee declared that schools, including kindergartens, should conduct “age-appropriate sex education for minors, increasing their awareness and ability to protect themselves against sexual abuse and sexual harassment”.

A hashtag about the change garnered 25 million views on the Twitter-like Weibo. During Liu’s presentation, participants filled the room’s chatbox with messages celebrating the milestone, one attendee said.

Although the government has issued policies on sex education for decades, implementation has been limited. Advocates say that what little sex education is taught lags behind current science. Some urge going beyond biology to teach students how to navigate relationships and sexuality.

It remains unclear how the law, which goes into effect on June 1, 2021, will be implemented.