Sex museums and sexual mores in China

The steamy tale of three cities that sums up China’s sexual confusion. This Sunday Herald article treats recent news items about two Chinese sex museums as symptomatic of Chinese attitudes towards sex.

Whatever the reason, organisers of an exhibition show casing sexual artefacts dating back two millennia were certainly unprepared for the opening-day stampede that attended this first-of-its-kind display in Beijing. . . . Matters came to a head when a glass display cabinet was shattered in the ensuing mêlée, resulting in panicky organisers pulling the plug after just one day. [...]

Ironically, it was the sort of publicity the country’s leading sexologist, 71-year-old Professor Liu Dalin, would have loved. The retired sociologist will next month see the doors close on his Ancient Chinese Sex Culture Museum in Shanghai, a city dubbed the Whore of the Orient during its freewheeling colonial days.

Not that he is complaining too much: he is being welcomed with open arms by the local government of Tongli in Jiangsu Province. It is offering rent-free space for the display of ancient sex toys, scrolls, fertility idols and erotic paintings. The authorities see a potential goldmine in tourism revenue.

Posted on Mon, Nov 10, 2003 at 1:14 PM