谁是我爱人: Chinese dating

UIBE, 32ºC, sunny

UIBE, the university campus where I am based, is overflowing with couples. They hold hands, they eat ice cream, they do what you would expect of couples. And more.

University rules forbid male students entering female dorms and vice versa. Sharing a cramped room with at least two other people is a limiting factor on any privacy you might seek anyway. So rather ironically, the any personal time one can spend with a love interest is in public.

My language partner explained that at high school, dating is forbidden by the teachers. There are girls’ tables and boys’ tables, a safe distant apart from one another. Once, two of her classmates were caught writing messages to one another in class. They were sent to speak with the Headmaster and were consequently punished.

At university, professors don’t have such stringent rules. How can they be so controlling? Couples will very openly embrace in public, and perhaps be little more intimate too. Having travelled a good amount around East Asia before, the last thing I expected was levels of public affection of which the French would be proud. Whether this is a recent phenomenon, or whether this has been the case for some time, I am not sure. That couples are so open surprises me nonetheless.