Chinese wary about platonic relationships (2)

The study found that about 70 percent of male respondents said they were eager to have a female confidante, while only half of female respondents were willing to have a close male friend. About 30 percent of female respondents reported that they had never had a close male friend, 7 percent more than the men polled in the survey.

The survey's results reflect the state of society, said Wang Yuru, general secretary of the Shanghai Psychological Counseling Association. "Although modern people enjoy more equality between the sexes than their parents' generation did, women are still regarded as the weaker party in relationships," Wang told the Global Times.

Chinese tradition says that women, unlike their husbands, become less attractive after they get married, so they tend to feel less secure about their marriages. "It is natural for women to expect their husbands to have less contact with female friends to reduce the chance that their husbands will have an affair," Wang told the Global Times.

More than 70 percent of respondents said people of the same sex dominated their circle of friends.