China throws off its inhibitions – now it's OK to talk about sex

Published on Sunday 15 February 2009 20:56

CHINA yesterday launched a nationwide sex education campaign in a bid to break taboos in a culture where few feel able to speak openly about sex.

Tradition and the influence of communism has meant people have historically been reluctant to address issues such as sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and infertility.

Since the 1970s, when China began its reforms and opening up, attitudes towards sex have started to change. Euphemistically-named health shops are scattered throughout major cities and little towns, and brothels dressed up as late night barbershops or beauty salons sit on street corners.

Now a campaign, titled the Sunshine Project to Care for Gender Health, is hoping to get more people to seek immediate medical help with sexual problems.

The initiative kicks off with an international sex toy fair in Beijing to help address what organisers consider the "painful topics" of sex.

The event, which once would have been considered a radical move by the Communist party, is a sign of how the government is now more willing to break taboos in order to raise awareness of sexual health.

The first state-sanctioned sex fair took place in Shanghai in 2004; it came up against some criticism, and featured vibrators, flavoured condoms and lubricants on display for the curious.

As recently as autumn 2007, Chinese censors banned sexually explicit radio and television programmes and birth-control advertisements.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) warned "pornographic" or "vulgar" television programmes would face harsh penalties. "All levels of television broadcasters must not air any vulgar content involving sexual experiences or functions of sex toys and birth control devices," SARFT announced.

However, the Beijing sex fair is being heavily promoted and fronted by Hong Kong actress Yvonne Yung and her husband. Yung is famous for appearing in heavily sexualised films.

The Sunshine Project to Care for Gender Health will also include competitions and posters. And, incongruously, it also comes at a time when China is clamping down on pornography online, in games and films.

According to organisers, only seven per cent of women and just over eight per cent of men in China feel able to talk about STIs, while two thirds of adults ignore the issue altogether.

The reason is, simply, that people do not talk about sex, say organisers. "These numbers are shocking," said Xia Enlan, head of the obstetrics and gynaecology department of the Capital University of Sciences' Fuxing Hospital. "It's taboo. The influence of feudalistic thinking has been around for many years."

She added: "People are not very open. They need to talk about it. The numbers who get medical attention for sexual problems are extremely small. This delays treatment for some very serious diseases."

Cui Yandi, from the China Woman and Child Development Centre, one of the initiative's major sponsors, added: "Sexual health is an important part of family life and good for helping build a harmonious society."

Growth in sexually transmitted disease, but real figures higher

DURING 2007, 700,000 people in China were infected with HIV/Aids, compared to an earlier estimate of 650,000. Many cases are suspected of going unreported.

The nation saw a one-fifth rise in cases of syphilis in 2008, amounting to a total of 257,474 diagnosed according to the health ministry. Cases of gonorrhoea, however, have declined by a tenth.

HIV/Aids is also now mostly sexually transmitted in China while previously the majority of cases were caused by intravenous drug use.

The Chinese government has backed television campaigns to promote the use of condoms.

Last year it reported that more than half of the capital's 90,000 prostitutes did not insist that their customers used protection.

In 2001, officials in Taishan, a new metropolis announced plans to establish an internment camp for Aids sufferers to contain the epidemic. Lin Bo, the director of Taishan's Epidemic Prevention Office, said isolating infected people was the fastest and surest way to stem the tide.