A survey by Li Yinhe, China's only female sexologist, shows that 70 per cent of
Beijingers have had pre-marital sex, compared with 15.5 per cent in 1989. In
the major cities, the average age at which people in the 14-to-20 age group
first have sex is 17, as opposed to 24 for those aged between 31 and 40.
The new permissiveness means that being faithful to one's partner is no longer
obligatory; a March 2005 survey revealed that a third of young people in urban
areas believe extra-marital affairs should be tolerated.
Professor Li, who teaches at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has spent
10 years researching the sex lives of the Chinese, and she believes China will
"catch up" with the West in terms of sexual practices within 20 years.
But judging by the 50,000 people who flocked to last month's Sex and Culture
festival in Guangzhou city in southern Guangdong Province to browse the latest
in sex toys - 70 per cent of the world's total are made in the province - it
may be sooner than that.
It is a far cry from the days of the Cultural Revolution, when sex was branded
as "decadent". Then, women were banned from wearing skirts and dresses, and the
authorities were far more concerned about controlling what people got up to in
their spare time.
"There used to be a whole layer of government involved in snooping into
people's lives," Professor Li said. "People were fired for having affairs and
punished for living with their boyfriends or girlfriends."
Some sociologists believe the policy introduced in 1979 restricting urban
couples to having just one child was the spark for the sexual permissiveness.
Professor Pan Suiming, of the Renmin University of China, said: "The one-child
policy shattered the Confucian belief that reproduction is the only purpose of
sex."
But the internet has really fuelled the sexual revolution in China. With more
than 100 million internet users and sex education in its infancy, young people
turn to the internet for everything from information about sex to pornography,
which is illegal in China. In the absence of a pub culture, they also use it to
meet partners. Some surveys claim 30 per cent of all one-night stands in China
are arranged on the web.
Unsurprisingly, this new-found sexual freedom has a negative side. The number
of young single women having abortions has soared: 65 per cent of women
terminating pregnancies in 2004 were single, compared to 25 per cent in 1999.
Rates of HIV infections are growing quickest amongst the 15-to-24 age group,
and the number of couples getting divorced in 2004 was 1.6 million, a 21 per
cent rise on 2003. But now the genie is out of the bottle, it seems there is no
turning back.
