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Asian ardour in question as sex rate lags
By Anne Senior October 25, 2004
Singapore - Europeans, especially the French, like to do it at least twice a
week, preferably with plenty of foreplay. Americans are also active in the
bedroom, but many Asians can only manage to make love about once a week.
According to an international sex survey published this month, Asians have the
dubious distinction of being the world's least active lovers.
The annual survey by condom maker Durex has consistently placed Asia's
developed nations at the bottom of the sex league table, with Japan, Singapore
and Hong Kong registering the weakest sex drive in this year's poll.
It's enough to make Asia's more lascivious lovers fume with wounded pride, or
prompt a nervous partner to reach for the Viagra.
But experts say the results are not necessarily grounds for performance
anxiety. Some doctors doubt whether the Web-based survey accurately reflects
the region's sex life. Others cite cultural and social factors that could be
giving east Asians an unfair reputation for being lazy lovers.
"In Asia people may not talk so much about sex but they are certainly doing it,
even older couples," said Wei Siang Yu, a Singapore physician dubbed "Dr Love"
for offering advisory services on sexuality, reproduction and health.
Sex and Cyberspace
He believes the poll underestimates Asia's sex rate, as mature couples who are
busy in the bedroom may not be Web surfers. A broader Internet user base in
Europe and the United States would tend to make their sex rates look higher, he
says.
The survey, based on questionnaires filled out by visitors to the Durex site,
found the French make love 137 times a year, 34 times more than the average.
The last-placed Japanese reported making love 46 times a year, followed by
Singapore and Hong Kong with 79, Taiwan with 80, India with 82 and Malaysia
with 86.
Thailand had Asia's most active lovers, with a score of 103, but they spent the
least time of all nationalities on foreplay.
The condom maker dismisses suggestions that the survey samples may be
unrepresentative or that some cultures could be prone to exaggeration, saying
confidential Web polling encourages honesty.
Some experts say the survey clearly points to a lagging sex rate in parts of
Asia, although they don't believe a simple lack of interest in love-making is
to blame.
"We can assume quite a bit of truth or reliability in the findings," said sex
therapy specialist Professor Man-Lun Ng of Hong Kong University's psychiatry
department, who noted the results agree with other studies of Asian sexuality.
"But less sexual intercourse does not necessarily mean lower libido."
The Time and the Place
Sexologists say gender inequality prevents some Asian women from expressing
their sexuality, dampening a couple's enjoyment and the frequency of
love-making.
Some Asian cultures also tend to discourage sex before marriage and can
stigmatise sex for widowed women, leading to a relatively high celibacy rate,
obstetricians say. Meanwhile, Asian men can take mistresses or visit
prostitutes, although they may not mention extra-marital adventures in a Web
survey.
Cramped living conditions in parts of east Asia, where extended families often
share a home, can also thwart couples who are seeking privacy for frequent and
energetic intercourse.
Some doctors add that urban stress, compounded by growing job insecurity and
high living costs, may be sapping the energy for sex, especially if both
partners are working.
As a result of these factors, urban centres such as Singapore are likely to
have a lower rate of sex than countries with more diverse environments, they
say.
"Lifestyle impotency is not peculiar to Singapore," said Professor Victor Goh
of the National University of Singapore's obstetrics and gynaecology
department.
"The urban crowding and the lack of privacy could be worse here but the
situation may not be very different from Hong Kong or New York," said Goh, who
found in a local study that couples aged 30 to 40 made love around five or six
times a month.
Passion Killer
Other observers agree that work stress is a passion killer. "Men and women here
work such long hours and come home late. It's hard for them to be in the mood
at the same time," said Pamela Tan, a worker in a Singapore sex novelties
store, who cheerfully suggests products to help couples energise their
relationships.
Dr Wei, who divides his time between Singapore and Tokyo, is highly sceptical
that liberal Japan, with its erotic comics and love hotels, could really be the
world's least ardent nation.
"How can the Japanese have the lowest rate of sex in the world? Their culture
is very sex-based," he said.
Whatever the truth about Asia's love life, doctors agree that couples should be
encouraged to find their preferred sex frequency, without being pressured to
meet any global standard.
And low libido would not explain the region's sinking birth rate. Apparently
highly sexed France and under-performing Japan are both producing fewer than
two babies per woman, less than the number needed to maintain a stable
population, data shows.
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