There seems to be a shortage of sperm donation in China.

Sperm banks were set up in China in 2001, with a maximum limit of one per province or autonomous region. As of last year, only 10 operate nationwide, and all of them are state-run. In the southern Guangdong province, 14 percent of the population, around 104 million people in 2010, cannot conceive. Having one sperm bank is, needless to say, kind of a problem.

Chinese men have shown a reluctance to donate their sperm. (I.am.Christopher.Baker)

If we’re building on the assumption that we're not excessively concerned with overpopulation in China, it seems as though this pesky problem needs to be addressed. There are families waiting for up to a year for viable sperm, and they would like a child (just one, please).

You know this has become a serious issue when Chinese officials start spouting propaganda in an effort to convince men to donate. Luo Wenzhi, who is the head of Guangdong’s family planning commission, has some encouraging words of thought:

“Donating your sperm is healthy. It won’t hurt you nor kill you.”

Indeed, it will not do either. Yet why are Chinese men reluctant to donate their sperm?

According to Time Magazine, sperm is associated with vitality, and giving it away is considered a cultural taboo. Wang Jian, a graduate student in Beijing who has an “excellent sample” of sperm (sperm donations have strict standards), told the China Daily last year that he kept his donation a secret from his family because he feared they might kill him “for letting a stranger use the precious family seed.”

Maybe it’s for a lack of proper sex education that men still believe donating sperm is potentially harmful or life-threatening. Maybe it’s just one of those irrational cultural beliefs that just refuses to be eradicated, no matter how irrational we know it to be (like how I still refuse to buy anything in amounts of four, since the number four sounds like the word death in Chinese). Maybe it’s their conservative nature to not want to (how do I put this delicately?)...do the dirty in a cup, and then subsequently hand their cup over to some stranger. It is the precious family seed, after all.

Regardless, there’s some poor Chinese couple out there, some couple who is perhaps desperate to pass down the family name, or enjoy a nice dose of filial piety in their later years.

So - guys, have some heart. Between 200 to 500 million of your little swimmers are present every time you ejaculate. Help some fellow comrades out. Spread those seeds!

Somewhere in China, a happy couple will be thanking you.