By Xinhua writer Ji Shaoting     

    BEIJING, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- A 120,000-word book about sex written by a 21-year-old female college student is making waves all over China and will be published soon.

    The writer's qualifications for a book on sex have been pooh-poohed by many. Even though she has a boyfriend, she is still a virgin. And yet some scholars are encouraging her initiative in a country where sex is still a "taboo" in education.

    Wang Ji, a journalism major at Guizhou University for Nationalities in southwest China's Guizhou province, has spent one and a half years writing the book. Writing in a lively manner unlike school text books, she deals with a whole range of "taboos" like internet sex partners, one night stands, venereal disease and romance between students and teachers.

    However, the book's publishers are said to have cut a section about choosing a vibrator.

    The author recommends that young people resort to masturbation to deal with sexual frustration, and gives advice on how to deal with the trauma of abortion and how to deal with the emotional and psychological consequences of having sex for the first time.

    "I just want to help my peers know more about sex in a healthy way," said Wang Ji.

    The book has a rose-colored cover and is called The Rose Document: Teach Yourself Sex.

    "At the beginning I was simply planning to collect some sex knowledge to help out a girlfriend who had just aborted in high school," she said.

    "Both of us were frightened and upset by the fate of the little living thing and the sight of the cold medical equipment covered in blood. Then I started to read books about sex," Wang said.

    Like many of her peers, Wang was frustrated by the fact that most sex educators do not speak plainly in their text books or in the classroom. Books and articles on sex, when she could lay her hands on them, were overly scientific, dry and boring.

    That's why many of my peers just learn from practice and adult movies, she said.

    Wang decided to write something that young people would want to read.

    "I simply wrote one chapter after another and to my surprise many schoolmates and even teachers began to wait for my next chapter," Wang said.

    "Now I have printed out two copies, 100 pages each. My schoolmates have copied them and they are being passed from one dormitory to another," she said, adding that some copies have traveled to other provinces.

    A publisher based in east China's Jiangsu provinces realized that Wang's book was quite different from other sex education books. Believing that it would be a big help to young people, they decided to publish it.

    Wang began a blog on Jan. 15 this year, posting some of her ideas and interview notes. The blog has been visited by over 420,000 netizens.

    Wang's views about sex and her notes from the interviews with the girl who had an abortion are followed by thousands of postings, some of them friendly and encouraging and others critical and even vicious.

    "Many people ask what sexual experiences I have had. They said how can a virgin educate Chinese youth about sex," Wang said.

    "My response is that many parents who have plenty of sexual experience are hopeless as sex educators. Sex workers have lots of experience. Should they be the ones to teach?" Wang answered.

    "The so-called experts do not know what we want to learn. Sex education is largely ignored in schools and universities and the brief introductions about procreation are too childish to read," said Wang Wei, another journalism major at Guizhou University for Nationalities.

    "I want my book to be sincere and practical," said Wang, who made students fill out questionnaires so she could better understand their ideas, experiences and questions.

    Of the 100 interviewees, 85 percent said they had not received any real sex education. More than half of them want to learn about lovemaking, over 60 percent want to know how to deal with sexual desire, and over 70 percent have questions about how to deal with their relationships on a day-to-day basis.

    To give credence to her views, Wang carried out interviews with experts, doctors and students and managed to find time despite her busy college life to carry out research in libraries and online.

    When her father heard that his daughter was planning to publish a book on sex, he called her grandmother to say, "Stop her, don't let her lose face".

    Some teachers and schoolmates think she must have had many sexual experiences and partners. Wang was upset when one of her respected older schoolmates posted a comment on the internet asking her to abandon the project and saying that she would have difficulties finding a husband.

    "I don't see why I can't get married just because I wrote a book," Wang said, "there are far too many prejudices about a girl writing about sex."

    "I have never thought of sex as a dirty thing. I do not advise people to be promiscuous but I also think it is a mistake to be too conservative."

    Wang has a plan for her own life: she does not want to be a mother before she's 25 and does not want to get married before 28, and she says she will try not to have sex before she gets married.

    "Take masturbation for example. I encourage my boyfriend to masturbate because it's a good way to release sexual tension," said Wang who has a boyfriend she often talks to about sex. However, he has not offered her much support for her book.

    "It is a significant development in Chinese sex education and it is great to see a junior college student trying to help her peers," said professor Hu Peicheng, director of the psychology department of Beijing University and deputy administrative chairman and secretary general of the China Sexology Association.

    Although Wang Ji's book is not professional from an expert perspective, her views are clearly expressed, which is the most important thing, Hu said.

    However, the burden of sex education should not fall only on Wang's shoulders. The book is an invitation for sex educators and peers to discuss sex, said Hu.

    The sexual problems and feelings of young people deserve more attention from sex educators. The book is informative and fills a hole in the market, said Kui Chao, senior director of the publishing company.

    "I hope that one day sex education will be as natural in China as maths and Chinese characters," said Wang Ji.