Journal: 9/22/03
Mike Steely
Report on article "Move over Mao, today's Chinese revolution is sexual", by David Lynch, USA TODAY
(http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2003-09-15-china-sex_x.htm)
David Lynch, in the above article, provides an interesting glimpse into the current state of sexual attitudes in urbanized China. He reports of a survey taken recently which proved how much more liberal attitudes to sex have gained in popularity, especially among the younger set. He also places the current revolution in its historical context, and notes how the revolution has influenced sexual education, pornography, dating, promiscuity, pre-marital sex, and prostitution.
Researchers have found, according to Lynch, that the percentage of men in urbanized China having had premarital sex under the age of 40 was 23% higher than those over 40. For women, it was 19% greater than those who came of age in the '80s.
Lynch writes of the overt changes to sexual attitudes on the street: hugging, kissing, and the change from a unisex Mao jacket to the push-up bra and thong. Yet, in spite of this display, not all of these changes have been welcome with status quo China. He mentions a TV weather program aired on Hunan Satellite Television, in which a female weather MC was yanked off the air by the authorities for her "skimpy outfits and erotic poses". The revolution is apparently on its way, but is not to be bought by the more conservative comrades.
Lynch briefly places the current revolution in its historical context, noting the liberal Tang Dynasty and "anything goes" days of the 1930s Shanghai, and finally the paranoid Puritanism of Mao's days. What is intriguing now is how China "is trying to balance greater openness with an avoidance of the worst excesses of the West". Lynch cites a professor of Shanghai University as saying that this relates to the ancient principle of zhong yong zhidao ("to avoid extremes").
The effects of the sexual revolution are controversial. Lunch notes the change in age of menstruation in girls from the age of 17 now down to 13 since the days of the Cultural Revolution. Soft-porn is now omnipresent, and sex-education is now being considered for primary school.
The costs of this revolution will take its toll as Lynch reports on an increase in syphilis, and prostitution. Earlier reports we have seen also include the rise of AIDS, especially in the trade centers and hinterlands, and of a greater number of sex-workers making their way to Taiwan and elsewhere, much to their risk. There is also the omnipresent karaoke bar, where soft-core prostitution is rife. Drinking by these bargirls also poses a health threat to girls who have no choice but to drink on a nightly, and monthly basis. College girls are also part of the sex industry, doing their tricks in the swankiest hotels in urban centers to support their way through school. We saw in a previous article how prostitutes are now crossing the border into S.A.R. Hong Kong for "vacations".
From my own experience in the Taiwan of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, Taiwan's "sexual side" at that time did not at all resemble that of the repressive, strait-jacketed Maoist China. On the contrary, in 1978 I discovered a society of mahjong player by day and bar girl by night; businessmen who conducted "official" business in luxurious clubs at night in the company of meiko-like bar girls; massage parlors; government sanctioned prostitution (on Hua Xi Street in old Taipei), and the ubiquitous "Love Hotel" (which allowed couples their privacy, i.e., premarital sex). But what most Americans would consider the norm, was, to some extent, the norm in the cities of Taiwan, especially Taipei, with its more liberal attitude. Dating of foreigners, for example, was condoned, though marriage was more or less on a family-sanctioned, case-by-case basis. Even gay pride made its debut and was accepted back in the early 90s.
