Chinese colleges extend spring break, urging students to ‘fall in love’
Global News
Nine colleges in China announced an extended week-long break with the theme of enjoying flowers and falling in love.
A number of vocational colleges in China are offering students an extended spring break while encouraging them to experience nature and pursue love — a move that has been interpreted by some on Chinese social media as a bid to boost the country’s falling birth rate.
The week-long break is an expansion of China’s one-day national holiday for the Qingming Festival, where families clean the gravestones of their deceased relatives and make offerings.
Nine colleges affiliated with the Fan Mei Education Group announced this year’s extended break from April 1 to 7, with the theme of enjoying flowers and falling in love, in a March 23 press release.
Students will be required to keep track of their spring break activities with travel journals, video diaries and photography assignments that will be exhibited when classes resume. Liu Ping, deputy dean of an aviation college in Sichuan, said the holiday will allow students to practice the art of living and studying in tandem.
A notice about the new holiday at one institution included instructions that “pre-holiday guidance” should be given “around the theme of the spring break ‘to enjoy flowers and fall in love,’ to lead teachers, students and employees to have a meaningful vacation.”
When Sichuan Daily covered the announcement, Chinese social media users on Weibo were quick to speculate that the move may be related to recent efforts within the country to boost the birth rate.
“Is it to increase the fertility rate?” one user asked.
“Sichuan is really strong at boosting the fertility rate!” another wrote.