Society

While it’s not exactly an uprising of Middle Eastern proportions, students in Taiwan have taken to Facebook to protest new educational requirements that make mandatory the study of the Confucian classics.

In February Taiwan’s Ministry of Education said it planned to require Taiwan high school students to study what is known as the “four books”– the Analects of Confucius, the Doctrine of the Mean, the Great Learning, and Mencius– in order to combat widespread bullying, drug use and gang problems among Taiwanese youth.

The Analects and the other three texts came to form the backbone of China’s Imperial era civil service examinations after being emphasized by Song dynasty scholar Zhu Xi in the 12th century. The books are written in classical Chinese, as distant from contemporary Chinese as Middle English is from modern English. Like literature students trying to make sense of Chaucer in the U.S. or UK, modern Chinese students often rely on contemporary Chinese “translations” to get through the works.

Beijing's taxi drivers can usually be relied on to be able to discuss almost any topic. But there's one subject that many of them would rather not talk about, especially here in China: sex.

Fang Junjun, for example, clams up when someone tries to steer a conversation towards his sexual health. "I'm a conservative person," says the 42-year-old who has been driving a taxi for the past two years. "I do not like to talk about it."

The traditional Chinese concept that sex is a taboo, combined with the operations of the taxi industry, has made it difficult for the China Family Planning Association (CFPA) to carry out a project that aims to improve sexual and reproductive health awareness among male taxi drivers here.

But the five-month project, which ended in March, was deemed important enough by the CFPA that the organization pressed on to implement it despite the challenges.

China will raise the retail prices for gasoline by 500 yuan ($76.34) per tonne and diesel by 400 yuan per tonne starting Thursday, the country's top economic planner said on Wednesday.

After the implementation of the increase, which is the second price rise this year, the benchmark retail price of gasoline will be raised by 0.37 yuan per liter and diesel by 0.34 yuan per liter, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said.

Due to rising international crude oil prices and mounting domestic inflation pressures, the NDRC has "properly postponed" the timing of the rise in prices and has limited the increase, the statement said.