Chinese are generally dissatisfied with their sex lives, according to statistics from the 2005 Durex Global Sex Survey released on Wednesday by the condom maker.

Only 22 percent of 89,018 of Chinese surveyed said they are satisfied with their sex lives, while on a global scale, 44 percent of respondents claim to be happy with it.

Hu Hongxia, managing president of the China Ancient Sex Culture Museum, does not agree with the results.

He said that according to a 1990 sex report in 1990 titled "China Contemporary Sex Culture," which he prepared with sex culture expert Liu Dalin after two years of research, the rate of sexual satisfaction shouldn't be that low. Some 20,000 people in 15 provinces were interviewed for that report.

However, Li Feng, director of the Health Education Department of the School of Public Health at Fudan University, said the results hold some truth.

"For a long time, Chinese didn't consider their sex lives as an important criterion of living standards," he said. "Due to a lack of awareness, some sexual diseases or psychological problems have not been and are not handled effectively, which can affect one's ability to enjoy sex."

The survey results on sexual health are not very encouraging either. About 18 percent of Chinese said they have suffered one STI (Sexually Transmitted Infection); about 17 percent said they became pregnant at the age of 18 or younger; more than 51 percent of people said they had unprotected sex.

Chinese also had the second lowest number of sexual partners at 3.1 while the global average is 9.

More startling, some Chinese respondents, the only ones to do so, said that formal sex education was not necessary, according to the survey.

"It is necessary to strengthen sex education in China," Li said. "In China today, the number of HIV carriers increases at a rate of 30 to 40 percent every year. Without more education about sexual health, what would happen in the future?"

Sex education is mandatory in middle schools, but few schools implement this, Li added.

(China Daily November 9, 2005)