Dylan Bettencourt
Young adults in China are increasingly turning down sex in favour of having pets and online gaming, say experts.
A team of researchers have also found that young people in China are losing their virginity at a younger age and then staying away from the act afterwards.
Despite youngsters in China being more open with the idea of sex compared to their traditional parents, a national survey over the span of three-years showed they are having less of it.
Researchers suggest online games and pets are serving as an alternative for sex.
“We are not sure that Chinese youth will follow in the footsteps of youth in Japan where many have chosen to have no romantic relationships, to not get married, and to live a sexless life,” the researchers said.
The research team at the Peking and Fudan universities surveyed 6,828 people in a nation where sex remains a taboo subject.
The report published in the Chinese Journal of Sociology indicated that sexual attitudes “have become more liberal in China” where people lose their virginity at a younger age.
“Surprisingly, however, we find that sexuality seems to have diminished in its appeal among young cohorts who have lower rates of sexual frequency than preceding cohorts,” the report said.
The findings of the report come as China struggles with failing marriages and decreasing birth rates which have increased the country’s ageing population crisis.
The study showed that youngsters are open to the idea that sex is a physical need that can be achieved without emotional attachment.
“But what is contrary to our common perception is that those born after 1995, energetic as they were, were even less active in sex life than those born in the 80s and 70s,” Yu Jia, a Peking University researcher and the report’s lead author, told the Sanlian Lifeweek magazine.
Around 6% of men and 9% of women born between 1970 and 1994 had partners who did not engage in sex in the year before they got together.
That figure has since increased to 14% and 10% respectively, according to the survey.
Image source: @Reuters
