Taiwan's place at the top in five categories in a recent global sex survey is a source of both good news and bad.
The good news is that Taiwan-ese have their first sexual experience later in life than any other nationality surveyed, they are the most conservative about having premarital sex, and that Taiwan has the world's lowest ratio of AIDS cases per capita than any other country in the study.
The bad news is that Taiwanese are the world's most reluctant to practice safe sex during their first sexual experience, and the reason for that, according to the survey, is because of a lack of contraceptive devices.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
The 1999 global sex survey, conducted by SSL International Plc, the manufacturer of Durex condoms, questioned around 4,200 members of both sexes aged between 16 and 21 years old in 14 countries around the world. The previous three annual surveys focused on 16- to 45-year-olds with sexual experience.
It is the first time Taiwan has been included in the company's global survey. Questions cover three major areas: sex education, sexual initiation, and sex lifestyle.
"We want to see how effective Taiwan's sex education is and to learn about the attitude of Taiwan's youth toward sex," said Paul Wang (汪政廷), country manager of London International Group plc, Asia Pacific, at a press conference yesterday.
The survey shows that on average, Taiwanese have their first sexual experience at the age of 17 -- the world's oldest -- and that the world average is 15.9 years old. The US figure is even lower, at 15 years old.
The survey showed that while 43 percent of the Taiwanese population prefers to have their first sexual experience after getting married, only around 16 percent of the rest of the world wishes to do so.
Despite the increasing prevalence of AIDS in society, almost half of all Taiwanese people didn't use protection the first time they had sexual intercourse, compared to just 28 percent for the rest of the world.
Surprisingly, some 62 percent of all Taiwanese people who didn't use contraception when they lost their virginity said that the reason was because they didn't have access to contraceptives. The fraction that used this excuse in the rest of the world was just 38 percent.
Another guest at the conference, Wen Jung-kwang (文榮光), President of the Chinese Association for Sexuality Education (中華民國性教育協會), called for raising general awareness of safe sex.
"People pay a lot of attention to IQ [intelligence quotient] and EQ [emotional quotient], but pay little attention to SQ [sex quotient]," he said.
"Using protection while having sex is like wearing a helmet or safety belt while driving. Having sex is like going onto a battlefield -- if you're not well prepared, you're running a risk of getting yourself killed."
Wen also criticized the emphasis that Taiwanese society places on virginity, citing cases from his own clinical experience.
"The idea makes married women hesitate to indulge in sex if they get divorced, while single women feel guilty about having sex before they get married," he said.
Hsiung Hsien-chih (
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
RSS