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A number of vocational colleges in China are offering students extended spring breaks while encouraging them to experience nature and make love, which some on Chinese social media have interpreted as an attempt to boost the country’s birth rate.
The week-long break is a continuation of the one-day Chinese National Qingming Festival, when families clean the tombstones of their deceased relatives and make offerings.
In a press release dated March 23, nine colleges owned by Fan Mei Education Group announced the extension of this year’s April 1 to 7 vacation dedicated to enjoying flowers and lovers.
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Students will be required to track their spring break activities with travel journals, video diaries and photography assignments, which will be posted once classes resume. Liu Ping, vice dean of the Sichuan Aviation College, said the vacation will allow students to practice the art of living and learning in tandem.
A new holiday notice at one school included instructions that “pre-holiday advice” should be given “on the spring break theme of ‘enjoy flowers and fall in love’ to lead teachers, students and staff to a meaningful break.”
When Sichuan Daily reported on the announcement, Chinese Weibo social media users were quick to speculate that the move could be related to the country’s recent efforts to boost the birth rate.
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– To increase the birth rate? one user asked.
“Sichuan is really strong in boosting the birth rate!” another wrote.
Many commentators were interested in seeing the new holiday appear in colleges across the country.
The birth rate in China has been declining for several years, and last year, for the first time in decades, the number of deaths in the country exceeded the number of births.
China has dug itself into a demographic hole mainly because of its one-child policy, introduced between 1980 and 2015. In 2021, the authorities increased the limit to three, but even during COVID-19, when people stayed at home all the time, couples did not want to eat children.
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Young people cite high spending on childcare and education, low incomes, weak social safety nets and gender inequality as discouraging factors.
At the annual meeting of the China People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) this month, a large number of proposals were made on how to increase fertility, ranging from subsidies for families raising their first child, not just their second and third, to expanding free public education and improving access to fertility treatment.
Experts took the sheer number of proposals as a positive sign that China is urgently fighting aging and demographic decline.
The birth rate in China fell to 6.77 births per 1,000 people last year from 7.52 births in 2021, the lowest on record.
— With files from Reuters
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