(PHOTO / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Unlike most Chinese men, who consider menstruation a taboo or even "dirty" topic, 30-year-old Yang Pai describes it as an "awesome thing" that triggers feelings of respect and amazement in him.

He recalled the first time he saw period pain cause his mother to faint. He was 6 years old.

"I was shocked by its power. What was this terrible thing that could even beat my mother?" he said.

Unlike many 1950s-born Chinese parents, who seldom discussed sexual matters with their children, Yang's mother gave him a brief explanation of menstruation, saying it is an event that arrives at a certain age and signals physical maturity.

"Without it, she would not have got pregnant and I would never have come into the world. That's what she told me. Since then, my impression of menstruation has been that it's awesome," Yang said.

By the end of last month, the "sanitary napkin mutual help box" campaign－a widespread handout of free sanitary products designed to end so-called period shaming－had been embraced by students at nearly 400 colleges nationwide.

Yang, who works as a gender diversity advocate, is a fervent supporter.

The campaign was initiated by Xu Luming, a sophomore at East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai.

She was inspired by a WeChat message posted by Liang Yu, founder of the Wuxi Lingshan Charity Foundation, an NGO that gained attention after mobilizing deliveries of sanitary napkins to hospitals in Wuhan, Hubei province, during the city's COVID-19 outbreak.

In this undated photo, students from Yunyang No 2 Middle School in Chongqing attend a special course on preventing sexual abuse. (PHOTO / FOR CHINA DAILY)

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The post described the use of mutual aid boxes and raised the idea of a campaign aimed at tackling "period poverty"－a phrase used to describe the financial problems facing many women from low-income backgrounds who cannot afford sanitary products－and bringing it to the forefront of the national dialogue.

Many colleges have joined the campaign by placing boxes containing free sanitary napkins outside female washrooms on campus.

There is no attempt to hide the boxes, and usually an accompanying notice reads: "For emergency use. Take one and replace it with a fresh towel to maintain the supply."

At Southwest University of Political Science and Law, in Chongqing, notices promote the campaign in Mandarin and English.

"The aim is to eradicate period shame," Xu said.

Embarrassment

In China, sex and related topics such as menstrual health have been taboo for thousands of years.

Even today, menstruation is a sensitive subject that few people are willing to discuss openly. Many teenage girls are embarrassed by their early experiences of periods.

"A feeling of humiliation was common among my female classmates in high school. Many felt ashamed when they had their period. There were even pranksters, mostly boys, who played jokes on other people with sanitary napkins," Yang said.

He recalled an incident when he was a 14-year-old junior high school student. Some boys stole a sanitary napkin from a girl and stuck it on the blackboard before their new mathematics teacher, who had just graduated from a teachers' university, arrived in class.

"There was a burst of laugher when the teacher came in. Of course, she noticed the pad, but without saying anything, she took it off the board and began the class. The owner of the pad didn't attend class when she discovered it had been stolen," Yang said.

"Although the teacher eventually discovered the name of the person responsible, she didn't pursue the matter. Maybe she didn't know how to deal with it?"

He noted that it is now possible to discuss sex-related topics more openly in China and that people are slowly becoming more tolerant of the subject, mainly thanks to the internet and information widely available online.

According to the China Internet Network Information Center, China was home to 904 million netizens at the end of last year's first quarter, while the internet penetration rate was 64.5 percent, a rise of 5 percentage points from 2019.

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Even so, Yang believes that there is still a long way to go.

"People's attitudes toward menstruation have hardly changed in recent decades. I think gender stereotypes are deeply rooted in our minds due to thousands of years of historical and social influences that are hard to shake," he said.

In July, the Maple Women's Psychological Counseling Center in Beijing published a survey in which almost 70 percent of respondents said they always hid sanitary towels if they had to carry them around.

Moreover, research released last month by Beijing Normal University showed that interviewees usually used synonyms to describe menstruation, and nearly half said they always packed sanitary products in nontransparent bags.

Yang believes the mutual help campaign is definitely a driving force to gradually eradicate the "shame" of menstruation.

"I'm pleased to see the topic spreading rapidly online, being discussed by lots of people and the media. The more it is talked about, the less sensitive it will be," he said.

Lack of access

According to the UN Population Fund, every woman will have 450 periods in her lifetime on average, and every day about 800 million women around the globe are menstruating.

Despite that, at least 5 million women globally have no access to proper menstrual care products.

Surveys show that women often face awkward situations when they get their period unexpectedly but have no access to sanitary napkins.

Recent research by Sichuan Normal University shows that three-quarters of 3,000 female students interviewed said they had experienced the ordeal, and nearly all of them said they would give sanitary napkins to someone in need.

According to a Nov 2 report in Beijing News, some students at an unnamed college have used slogans such as "I'm a woman, I menstruate" as part of a campaign to help people understand their demands.

China Women's University in Beijing was one of the first supporters of the campaign, and nearly all its female washrooms are equipped with distinctive green-and-yellow containers.

To ensure donor anonymity, people are asked to put the napkins in sealed bags marked with the item's date of manufacture and size.

"I think it is a laudable initiative to meet women's specific practical gender needs. As a result, women and teenagers are relieved of this awful feeling of shame and are more confident in their time around campus," said Queenta, a graduate student from Cameroon at the university.

She added that girls in her country still see menstruation as a taboo, and the subject is never openly discussed.

Many male students have expressed support for the campaign.

"It is a very meaningful and necessary movement to end period shame. Even my male peers know menstruation is still a very private topic, which girls feel reluctant to share with others. That should change," said Zhang Beiyue, 20, a junior student at Jiangsu Police Institute in East China.

Wen Long, 25, a male salesclerk at a shopping mall in Shanghai, praised the campaign.

"I've seen some female customers suddenly get their period in the mall when they are not carrying sanitary napkins," he said.

"Some metropolitan malls, including the one where I work, provide free sanitary napkins in the female washrooms. Some malls even have vending machines for napkins. It's a step forward."

People take a rest on a bench at Liren Park in Liangjiang New Area, Southwest China's Chongqing municipality, on July 22, 2020. (PHOTO / CHINADAILY.COM.CN)

Criticism

Though the campaign has been championed on social media, it has also been criticized and even mocked. Some critics said the boxes should be placed inside the washrooms for greater privacy.

In one incident at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, the containers were deliberately placed outside male washrooms and daubed with references to masturbation.

"It's rude and improper to make a connection between menstruation and masturbation. Despite the similar spelling, they are entirely different, both physically and mentally. People can choose masturbation, but women have no choice about periods, which are often painful," said Tong Li, secretary-general of the China Sexology Association.

He said the campaign urges both men and women to take a rational view and eradicate the shame surrounding the topic.

"But the fundamental way to remove the taboo would be to promote sex education, which is still lacking in China's education system nationwide," Tong added.

In China's schools, there are neither national guidelines nor a national curriculum for sex education. Instead, related content is incorporated with health education, which is included in the physical education and health curriculum. In reality, sex education is mainly undertaken by NGOs in a limited number of schools.

"Sex education is crucial. It not only provides children with knowledge about sex and gender, but also guides them to find healthy and positive ways to explore their lives and their relationships with others," said Liu Wenli, an associate professor with the School of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at Beijing Normal University.

Liu has been researching sex education since 1988. In 2006, she established a new research team and compiled teaching materials for different age groups, from children at kindergartens to college students.

Based on her studies, Liu said children who receive sex education deal with parental or peer relationships better than those who don't.

"Also, sex education has been shown to help children form a more tolerant, many-sided and freer view of the world," she said.

Of the attitudes that can be influenced by sex education, she said the understanding of gender is usually formed at a very early age.

"That's why we are conducting research on sex education in kindergartens. To remove social stereotypes about gender, such education should be introduced as early as possible," she said.