Sex, Science and Morality in China

Marriage and eugenics

Everyone must marry. Or so the experts say. It is a contract that is blessed, near universal - and beset with obligation.

No sex before marriage

Pre-marital chastity is policed in universities with dormitory living and morality patrols. A US-based, Moonie-backed group has been active on Chinese campuses signing students up to an abstinence and purity pledge.

Eugenics

Once married comes the child. Population controls have done nothing to ease the pressure to reproduce, instead turning attention from quantity to ‘quality.’ Eugenic advice is widely available, and unfit parents were identified until recently in a compulsory pre-marital health check.

Fewer births, certainly, and ‘better’ births, it is argued. But the One Child Policy has had other effects too. China now has millions of missing girls, most despatched in sex-selective abortions. And millions more out-of-plan births have created an invisible army of people with no formal rights and who do not officially exist.

Read an overview from the marriage manuals chapter