Third-year students in more than 50 Shanghai middle schools will use a new textbook this semester that includes a complete unit on love.

Entitled Love Is Song the unit consists of stories and poems on love by well-known international writers and poets, both ancient and contemporary. It includes A Letter to My Daughter by Russian pedagogue Vasili Sukhomlinskii, A Love Letter by poet Alexander Pushkin, Ode to the Oak by the Chinese poet Shu Ting, and the famous passage on equality from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.

The carefully selected literary works are meant to convey messages such as, "love is great but should not be blind," "love means being faithful and helpful to the beloved" and "lovers should be equal and independent in the relationship."

This bold touch of romance in the school curriculum of 15-year-olds is aimed at tailoring textbooks to actual needs of students and giving them a better understanding of human emotions, according to Professor Fan Shougang, chief editor of the new textbook from the Shanghai Education Publishing House.

"It is a very good step forward for educational authorities to take care of the inner world of students rather than focusing only on their scores," said Yang Xiong, director of the Juvenile Research Institute of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

According to a recent survey conducted by the institute, around 20 percent of local middle school students have started dating and around 10 percent have physical contact with their dates.

"They are at the very sensitive age, full of curiosity about the other sex, and it is very necessary for school and parents to guide them and teach them how to treat the issue," Yang said.

However, in Chinese society, both spiritual and physical love are believed to divert teenage students' attention from their studies. They have long been warned to avoid close contact with classmates of the opposite sex and focus their full attention on study so as to secure a good future.

"Suppressing the feelings may result in extreme reactions from the young. Open discussion on the topic while studying these literary classics together is very positive in leading them smoothly through the chaotic period of puberty," Yang said.

(China Daily September 2, 2004)