Decriminalize Adultery? It's About Chines Culture Value toward Family and Marriage

Author：Aaron

"The one who doesn't be loved should be the third person." The statement from a heated TV soap opera may be the truth.

Yesterday our Culture Minister Lung issued the controversial thought that we should decriminalize adultery to conform to international human rights regulations. According to Lung, our existing regulation  about adultery crime embarrassed her when it comes to the international table.

According to No.554 Interpretation of Judicial Yuan, R. O. C., every person is entitled to the freedom of sexual behavior, but marriage and family, which are the foundations of our society, are institutionally protected, so the personal sexual freedom should be somehow restricted. So in our society, marriage and family are put above the sexual freedom. It's about conventions and traditions.

True, sexual freedom is important. But contrary to the Western convention that individuals come the first, there is something more important in Chinese society, which is the basic social units: family. History shows that family played an important role in our daily life. It's not only about how to tax and when to generate the social assistance mechanism, but about the traditional views to identify responsibilities and obligations.

So all the adultery crime regulations are just kind of formative ways to preserve the Chinese traditional attitude toward family and marriage; plus, they only refer to married couples. So if someone doesn't want to promise and take his/her responsibilities of organizing a family, he/she should not marriage. For them, what they need may be just cohabitation, which without involving any possible restrictions.

Some supporters said that there is no evidence that the nations without adultery crime have higher extramarital rate. But as I said above, this issue is not internal affair but traditional culture values. It's about attitude and respect of family and marriage.

Generally speaking, it's harder for conservative view to appeal attraction. But with the Western value on the wane, we should take into serious consideration about what kind of value should be passed to our next generation.