Chinese college offers dating classes to students to teach social norms

World Today

Chinese college offers dating classes to students to teach social norms

In China education is the answer for many problems but can it help with dating?

One university is turning students love of learning into learning about love.

CGTN’s Wei Lynn Tang shows us how cupid is entering the classroom.

Different coloured scarves symbolizing the sacrifices and benefits of a marriage.

Undergraduate students from various majors take turns expressing themselves via this thought-provoking process. They also discuss and write down what these sacrifices are.

For the male, it’s mostly the loss of personal space and money, and the female their looks and health. This class, geared toward marriage, comes near the end of a 14-week interdisciplinary course entitled “Art of Getting Along with the Opposite Sex”.

“In this class, the boys shared their views on changes they may encounter from dating up until marriage. We don’t often understand this as girls, because we wouldn’t usually ask the opposite sex this. So this is an eye-opener for me and maybe a great help to us in the future,” said Hou Shufen a logistics undergraduate student.

In the early parts of this inaugural course, students learn how to make a good first impression, meet the right person, and date.

Gao Fei, the course’s founder and teacher, has two aims: to help narrow the gap between knowledge and practice, and to better prepare than repair these students for what’s to come in their future.

“The divorce rate in China has been increasing over the past 5 to 8 years; and most of those divorced were born in the mid to late 80’s and even the 90’s. Analysis shows this is due to one’s pursuit of individual freedom. A huge part is also because they don’t know the source of pain when challenges in a marriage occur, so they feel it’s better to just change partners. But if this mindset is not changed, even changing a partner is futile,” said Gao Fei the course founder and teacher.

For some students, it’s more than just a dating and marriage elective. This engineering major says this course is necessary. He cites the lack of communication skills most university students face as they focus too much on their academics.

“If we can manage to get along with the opposite sex, I believe we can also communicate better with the elderly, strangers, and people of the same sex. These skills are useful in life. For example, I have now learned to put myself in the shoes of another, to be more considerate and seek to understand the other better,” said Ji Zesen an engineering student.


Zak Dychtwald discusses dating troubles facing youth in China

CGTN’s Mike Walter spoke with Zak Dychtwald author of “Young China: How the Restless Generation Will Change Their Country and the World” about dating troubles facing youth in China.