‘PDA police’ dressed in camo punish students for hugging at Shandong college campus
Those caught engaging in such ‘uncivilized’ acts as hugging could be named and shamed by the school
Uniformed “PDA police” are now on patrol at a college in Shandong province where you can be publicly “shamed” for being caught canoodling in public with your sweetheart.
A student organization at the Binzhou Vocational College has recently set up a special task squad of volunteer students with the goal of enforcing the school’s code of conduct, monitoring campus for a range of “inappropriate behaviors,” including smoking, littering, and “uncivilized” contact between the sexes.
In a video published by The Paper, squad members are seen marching military-style through campus, wearing camouflage uniforms and hats. In one clip, three “officers” surround a young couple who had allegedly been engaging in some illicit behavior — hugging.
After spotting such “uncivilized” acts, squad members record the names of those individuals involved. If the offense is severe enough, those names will be posted publicly by the school.
As you might expect, Chinese netizens are not big fans of the “PDA police,” referring to them as the “new Red Guards.” Meanwhile, many students on campus find the whole thing simply ludicrous as well.
“We’re all 20 years old, but dating is still forbidden. It’s a beautiful thing to fall in love at university, why make it into some kind of scourge?” The Paper quotes one student as saying.
However, the college appears to be standing by its morality monitors, claiming that their actions are being hyped up and distorted online. The school said that in the case of the instance above, the monitors were only trying to give the cuddling couple a warning and correct their behavior, but the male student began to throw a fit.
“We believe that excessively intimate displays of affection, like hugging, are not suitable for public places,” one staff member said.
A few years ago, another vocational university in Shandong province also made headlines for its similarly puritanical code of conduct which said that those students caught holding hands would be punished by being made to clean the bathrooms.
These sort of PDA prescriptions are a bit more common in Chinese high schools where bans on the “five-finger tango” and other acts of puppy love have been put into effect at a few institutions— including one Zhejiang high school where boys and girls walking together was forbidden.
Recently, a high school in Henan’s Ruyang province has started broadcasting anti-dating slogans all day on a campus big screen, warning students that falling in love will cause their all-important gaokao scores to suffer.
“Anything more than friendship is harmful to you and them,” one message reads, according to the Global Times. “You’re hindering their studies and stirring their emotions — is that really loving someone?” says another.
