Reporter's log: It's time for more respect and care

Many women may recall their first period as the most impressive but embarrassing memory of their teenage years.

For one woman I know, a pile of underwear hidden under her bed was a clue to the moment that marked her maturity.

When her mother entered her bedroom and tried to rouse her (I guess she was not asleep, just shocked and at a loss to know what was happening), the girl explained the situation.

Her mother laughed and said, "My poor girl! It's just your period."

She was born in the 1980s, when sanitary napkins were not widely known in China. That might have been the reason she had to change her underwear so often－she didn't know such aids existed.

That was certainly the situation when I was a teenager. Physical hygiene classes at school only taught human biology. Menstruation and nocturnal emissions were not included. Periods were a secret only to be shared with close friends.

Concealment of menstruation is not a phenomenon unique to China, but common in many countries.

Last year, an Oscar-winning short documentary called Period. End of Sentence showed a similar situation in an Indian village. Some of the male interviewees said they had no concept of menstruation, and a few were shocked, saying menstruation is a disease and most of the people who get it are women.

The campaign to end unhealthy "period shame" proves that menstruation and topics related to sex and gender are still sensitive, even decades after China became far more open to global influences.

Small steps forward are still inspiring, though.

Back in the 1980s or even '90s, such topics would never have been covered in the media or discussed openly.

Now, the mutual help box campaign in colleges has attracted attention via media reports, from newspapers to online news portals.

On Weibo, the hashtag "Sanitary napkin mutual help box" had been viewed 220 million times by Tuesday, and about 96,000 comments had been left, mostly supportive.

More encouragingly, I have noticed that lots of my contacts, many of them men, have shared related news on their WeChat moments.

For most Chinese people, who are accustomed to harmonious atmospheres in negotiations or discussions of current affairs, arguments are always seen as destructive and unwelcome.

Despite that, I believe the latest argument, involving millions of people, will prove to be an icebreaker, pushing society to think about ways to treat women with more respect and care.