Lessons in love: China varsity teaches seduction
Chinese university tutor Xie Shu’s core subject is Communist ideology, but he has diversified from the dry annals of political doctrine for a more handson subject: seduction.
His “Theory and Practice of Romantic Relations” course at Tianjin University includes lectures on pickup techniques, self- presentation and how to entice the opposite sex. “How should you react when you’ve been rejected?” Xie asked his young charges at one lecture, in a cafe on the campus in the northern port city. “Clearly, don’t throw the roses that you bought the girl at her — keep calm.”
Tianjin is China’s first university to integrate such a course into its curriculum, giving students credit towards their degrees for attending — an indication of slowly loosening social norms in China after decades of more straight- laced traditionalism.
At the cafe Xie flipped through Powerpoint slides, showing the boys how to “upgrade their look” by avoiding “tank tops and long shorts”, and urging them not to “ask girls questions like it’s a police investigation”. “Be courteous. Serve the girl before yourself. But don’t go overboard, either,” he advised.
His female charges, he suggested, should run their hands through their hair and “look the boy in the eye even if they feel intimidated”. Sitting towards the back of the pack, Zijun Qian, 23, who has never had a relationship, diligently typed up the teacher’s advice on her laptop. “When I learned that a class like this existed, I thought it was incredible,” she said.
Xie occupies a particularly Chinese academic role as a fudaoyuan, who instructs students in Marxism- Leninism- Mao Zedong Thought as well as social counselling, but his authority on the issue of relationships is open to question. He is single, he admitted sheepishly. “I don’t have a wife or a girlfriend,” he laughed, “which is a bit embarrassing”.