Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
It begins innocently enough. Tsz Ching and Sau Lai, two 15 year-olds in Hong Kong, are at home studying together when Tsz Ching takes off her jacket and Sau Lai feels “excited”. What should he do? One answer: go and play badminton, according to a 70-page sex education document released last week by the city’s education department. “Is badminton the Hong Kong answer to sexual impulses in schoolchildren?” asks one headline in response. The guidance is intended to help teenagers understand “ways of setting limits of intimacy”. Diana Kwok Kan, from the Education University of Hong Kong, said young people should be taught how to understand their sexual development instead of being told to control it; others described the guidance as “out of touch”. Hong Kong’s authorities have defended the curriculum. The city’s teenagers, says the NYT, mainly find it funny.
