College teaches ‘secret’ to happy marriage

A Chinese university teaching students how to handle intimate relationships in an optional course made its way into the top five most discussed topics on Sina Weibo on Tuesday, China Youth Online reported.

North University of China, based in Taiyuan, North China's Shanxi province, has held the course for more than five years.

It focuses on psychological interpretations of intimate relationships, such as roommates, close friends, love relationships and marriage, said Lyu Hui, a law professor who started the course.

The course is very popular with students, so its size was expanded from the original 150 students to 200, Lyu said. Students still need to fight for a spot in the course, which has three sessions each lasting 40 minutes.

The final exam of the course takes the form of a paper, in which students are asked to write about a past event they can't forget and recall their feelings back then. By writing it out, many students find a way to overcome past conundrums, involving not only the loss of a lover, but also some issues about other relationships like with their parents, Lyu said.

The key to finding a soul mate is actually loving oneself. If one learns to accept and love themselves, it's natural thing that they can also handle intimate relationships, Lyu said. The secret to happiness is being a responsible person capable of loving others.