Sex, Science and Morality in China

'Abnormality'

Natural, healthy sex is intercourse between husband and wife. Anything else, to some degree, is abnormal.

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is no longer a hooligan crime, and in 2001 it ceased to be a mental disorder when changes to clinical definitions led to what was - given China’s population - probably the greatest mass recovery from illness in history. Though many still feel obliged to marry, increased tolerance has led to discreet gay scenes in China’s cities and a growing internet community.

Pornography

The use of pornography is depraved, and production and distribution criminal. But endless crackdowns (including, at times, execution) have not stopped it being widely available. What counts as obscenity, however, is open to interpretation. Images of ‘scientific or artistic value’ have the best chance of avoiding the censor. But not always.

Other sexual practices – SM, fetishism, transvestism, voyeurism, paedophilia – are lumped together (in keeping with international practice) as paraphilias, disorders to be diagnosed and treated.

Read an overview from the prostitution chapter