Podcast: Story in the Story (3/20/2019 Wed.)

From the People's Daily app.

And this is Story in the Story.

It seems that being in a romantic relationship at university helps students excel academically. 

That's according to a survey of nearly 1500 Chinese college students - 80 percent of them reported feeling more motivated to study and enjoy life when in a romantic relationship. 

The study, by China Youth Daily, also shows that over 60 percent would consider getting married to their college sweethearts after graduation. 

According to the survey, most students are in favor of dating on campus. Over 60 percent of the  students said it's normal to have a romantic relationship at college, and nearly 40 percent showed strong support for dating on campus, believing falling in love is an integral part of university life and "a precious life experience". 

Only two percent of students said they are against dating on campus because "it negatively impacts academic life and is a waste of time." 

Today's Story in the Story looks at the trend of dating at college.

(Photo: CGTN)

When asked about balancing romance with studies, about 80 percent of the students believed that having a romantic relationship helps them feel motivated to study harder and live happier. 

"It's a wonderful thing to meet the love of your life in college," said a junior student named Jiang Xinchi at Sichuan Agricultural University. 

“As college students, we've grown to be mentally mature. We have freedom over our time, and our parents don't oppose us dating. It's the perfect time to enjoy dating."

However, if they had to choose, half of the survey respondents thought success in academic life is more important, given that achievements in school and career will help forge romantic relationships later in life. 

"Being in love makes me feel more motivated in academic life, because both of us can encourage and inspire each other," Zhang Zicheng, a student from Yunnan Normal University said. "A healthy relationship helps two people grow. On the contrary, if you fail to handle the relationship, it will be a distraction, a waste of time and causes your grades to fall." 

A university in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, has taken it a step further by making its electives more practical and attractive to students, with a course titled “Art on Getting Along with Opposite Sex” released on the elective curricula. 

Gao Fei, the founder and instructor of the course with Southwest Jiaotong University hoped that students can have an easier and more pleasant time while they are dating and can better manage their relationships. 

“This course is aimed to let students have a right attitude toward dating and help them go through healthily,” Gao said, adding that the concepts of psychology and law are used to help solve problems during dating and let students foresee possible conflicts after marriage. 

“In a given circumstance, boys and girls exchange words with each other and experience the intimacy between each other. Only if they can understand the other side, they will be in a fit state to start dating,” she said.

(Photo: CGTN)

A postgraduate student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Xue Jiayue, said conventional Chinese parents forbid their children from dating before college, so it's not surprising that the best students have no romantic experience. 

"Once at university, there is still a lot of pressure to study hard, so some students don't even know how to meet members of the opposite sex," Xue said. 

"Meeting someone at university also has its own advantages. It's safer, for one. And there is also a greater possibility that the students will share a similar background and values." 

She added that school activities also provide students with a more suitable selection of candidates because more or less everyone is in the same age group and has the same level of education. 

Meanwhile, an online college course on how to deal with love and relationships has become a hit among students. 

The course, offered by China University of Mining and Technology in Xuzhou, eastern Jiangsu Province, was developed by Duan Xinxing, a psychology professor and dean of the Faculty of Public Management. 

After years of research and practice, she has found that failure in dealing with relationship problems has become a major factor impacting college students' mental health, so she decided to start the course to help students understand different aspects of a relationship. 

"If students learned how to handle all types of challenges they encountered in their relationships after studying the course, I could say that they've learned the 'techniques'," said Duan. 

(Produced by Nancy Yan Xu, Brian Lowe, Lance Crayon, and Da Hang. Music by bensound.com. Text from China Daily, CGTN and Global Times.)