Moving away from taboos

Xiao Xiaoyang, an associate professor at Chongqing Medical University and a gynecologist at one of the university's affiliated hospitals, said she's witnessed the dark side of cohabitation first hand – in the form of a surge in abortions from female students.

"They always come surreptitiously and in a state of great shame," Xu told the Global Times. "I believe universities should put greater emphasis on keeping students healthy overall – providing them with condoms and other birth-control methods. College students may be mature physically, but their mindset can be very immature."

Fang Kun, 27, a third-year graduate student at Peking University, agreed with Xu. "I would hope we've gotten to the point in society where a university's function is not to simply educate students in sexual morality, but to give students more concrete instructions on how to lead a healthy sex life after graduation."