The girl, whose surname is Zhang and is a student at a secondary school training medical and nursing personnel, bought her father a "special gift" - four boxes of aphrodisiac capsules - on Father's Day, which falls on the third Sunday in June, according to Tianfu Morning Post.

She bought the gift because she felt relations between her parents were not as "intimate" as before, the daughter told the newspaper.

But the parents were annoyed by the gift and they blamed the store where their daughter bought the capsules for selling them to someone under 18, the paper said.

The parents asked to return the medicine and threatened to sue the store, it said.

And, after the issue was publicized by the newspaper, it aroused heated public debate.

According to a recent survey launched on a website, 58.73 percent of 9,151 questionnaire respondents thought the girl's actions had been "inappropriate," 31.48 percent thought the couple were "conservative" and the others declined to comment.

Zhang Shuang, a taxi driver in Beijing, said he appreciated the girl's devotion to her father, but it was "embarrassing" that she had talked about her parents' privacy.

Dong Jiwei, an Internet surfer, disagreed. He said an aphrodisiac is no different to other commodities. "Why can't she send her parents medicine to show her devotion?" he asked.

Jiang, a marketing manager at the factory that produces the aphrodisiac, said the firm is "sorry" for the trouble caused by the affair.

He asked the couple to understand the girl's devotion, and promised to refund the money spent on the capsules if they "really do not need such medicine."

Now the Zhang's family life is calm again and the couple has agreed to keep the medicine, according a follow-up report.

A marital expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said it had been a "special case" and not worth all the fuss.

But he said youngsters should be given sex education, especially about marital life. Currently, both teachers and parents in the country remain rather passive in helping teenagers learn properly about sex.

(China Daily 07/03/2001)