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No condoms, please, we're Chinese men
By Wen Chihua
April 11, 2002
Beijing - As an administrative official of a major news organization here in
Beijing, Liu Jie has become used to multi-tasking. But for the past few years,
one particular item in her list of duties had become quite a challenge to
accomplish: family planning, largely because she has to introduce contraceptive
use to the employees.
"I've made it known to every colleague that condoms are available in my office,
free of charge," says Liu. "But for years, very few people have come to me and
asked for them."
It was only recently that she finally realized that many people were simply
feeling too embarrassed to ask for the condoms, which most Chinese still
connect with promiscuity. So early last month, Liu placed cases of condoms
beside the washbasins in the both the men's and women's toilets in the
building. Today, a visibly pleased Liu reports, "Out of the 140 condoms placed
out in the first two weeks, over 60 are now gone."
By some fluke, Liu's initiative has coincided with the Chinese government's
renewed determination to check the spread of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted
diseases by all means, including promoting the use of condoms. The challenge,
however, is how to "redo" the image of the condom into something more
acceptable in a sexually conservative country. In the past, even the State
Family Commission had come under fire for promoting condoms, which it now wants
to be distributed free in all state institutions. The commission is also
running a free-condom program in four pilot areas: Sichuan, Shandong, Henan and
Gongzhuling.
Yet just two years ago, the commission had to abort a television campaign for
the device after just a single airing of a condom promotion advertisement on
the China Central Television. Apparently, some viewers had written angry
letters, charging the leading national network for violating the law against
running ads that "promote a sexual commodity".
China's 1989 Advertisement Law forbids any advertisement for sexual goods from
appearing in a public area or on mass media, including newspaper, magazine and
television.
During 2000, Qinghua and Beida, China's two most prestigious universities, also
came under attack after each installed a few condom-vending machines on campus.
"The controversy revealed that conservative forces are very strong even in
China's intellectual community," says Dr Zhao Baige of the State Family
Planning Commission. But this has not stopped the commission from going on with
its plans to make "condom use less sensitive but more sensible". Zhao says the
push for condoms is a vital part of the anti-HIV/AIDS campaign, which has been
designed to encourage a more active involvement of Chinese men.
To date, male Chinese in general have shouldered too little responsibility for
family planning and reproductive health. Statistics from the State Family
Planning Commission show that among the married couples practicing planned
parenthood, only 4.2 percent resort to condoms and 8.9 to male sterilization.
That means, experts say, that women are the ones being relied upon most of the
time to take contraceptive measures.
But the men's shunning condoms in particular has exposed them to risks of
contracting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, says
Professor Liu Xiaozhang of the Sichuan Institute of Reproductive Health, adding
that these men could thus be putting their families in jeopardy. "That is to
say that in most cases, it is the women who get infected from an infected man
who wouldn't wear a condom," says Liu. "Then the infected woman might affect
the health of her child, as the virus can be transmitted to the fetus, or
through maternal milk."
China has an estimated 1.7 million people with HIV. A worried Liu, looking at
much lower official figures, warns that the situation could get out of control
if adult Chinese men are allowed to go on with their unsafe sexual behavior.
Liu and other scholars blame the country's feudalistic cultural tradition for
discouraging men from shouldering responsibility for family planning. This has
led to the thinking that the men's "superiority" would be compromised by condom
use.
But sheer ignorance and superstitions have also played huge roles in keeping
men away from condoms. For instance, says Zhou Lianfu, a sociologist from
Gongzhuling, in the northeastern province of Jilin, local people believe that
"it's unhealthy for men to use condoms, assuming they may restrain men's sexual
capacity".
There is also the notion that condoms are somewhat "obscene". When the
Guangzhou-based magazine City Pictorial sent a free condom along with each copy
of its 21st issue last year, for example, almost the whole city was up in arms.
Many lashed out at the magazine for "misleading the youth into promiscuity" by
exposing them to a "sexual device". One irate parent even posted an article
online that said promoting condom use "is actually telling unmarried young
people it's all right to go for sex".
But City Pictorial editor Li Disheng stood his ground, arguing that the move
was made "out of concern for our readers, whose ages span from 18 to 40, an age
group that is sexually active". The condom distribution, he also noted, "is
helpful rather than misleading. At least we made those teenagers aware that
unsafe sex may incur not only unwanted pregnancy but also sexually transmitted
diseases and even HIV infection."
To lessen the objections against condoms - and also make the promotion of the
device "legitimate" - the Ministry of Health last April redefined the condom as
"a medical device" rather than a sexual commodity. This redefinition gives the
green light for condom ads in mass media, says Professor Gu Baochang, an
adviser to the State Family Planning Commission. Recently, the commission also
changed the Chinese term for "condom", shifting from biyuntao, literally
meaning "sheath to avoid pregnancy", to anquantao, or "safety sheath".
Gu, though, points out that all these efforts could make little difference if
the quality of the free condoms does not improve. At present, there are seven
main factories across the country that churn out a combined output of 3 billion
condoms annually. A random survey conducted by the State Quality Inspection
Bureau last year shows that at least 30 percent of these are not up to safety
standards.
There are other factors impeding condom use. In a survey that sociologist Zhou
conducted last year on 5,200 adult men in Gongzhuling, 77.8 percent of those
who "refused" the condom complain that it is "inconvenient" to use.
It is also not easily available to many Chinese. Dr Zhao herself concedes that
the price of local condoms that are of good quality seems to be still beyond
the reach of many families.
All this prompts Gu to say, "To make this campaign a success, we need a
down-to-earth attitude and hard, practical work rather than boastful
declarations."
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