And they call it puppy love (3)

"To have a certain fondness for one of the opposite sex is a normal phenomenon for adolescent students. Teachers often take a tolerant attitude toward the normal interaction of boys and girls in school, and will not interfere with it as long as they can balance dating and studies," said Liu Jinyan, a psychology teacher from Shanghai Luwan Senior High School, who guided Xu's project.

Liu also pointed out that such understanding and tolerance from parents and teachers is generally only found in bigger cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

"In some remote areas, many parents still treat it as a serious taboo," she added.

"My parents have not explicitly said they oppose me falling in love in high school, but I think they don't want me to do that," said student Wang Bin.

"They often said the top priority of students is to study and enter a famous college while teachers in school also said the same thing. They don't know this only adds more negativity," Wang said.

When teachers discover students falling in love, they inform both sides' parents, who usually believe that the top priority and only task for the student is to study.

"Teenagers who have rebellious attitudes will tend to do what their parents and teachers forbid," one high school student complained online. "This would make things worse."

"Many students who fall in love break up eventually. Even so, it's still a kind of experience of a failed emotion, a kind of education about failure and suffering. I think that's a part of growth," said Wang Xin, a mother.

"Stubborn opposition may not produce a good result. Parents should teach children how to protect themselves and to have healthy interactions in school," she said.