Private life and growing public acceptance

Reactions toward China's best-known sexologist's disclosures about her personal life are testament to the growing acceptance of other people's private lives.

Li Yinhe has been leading the life of a pioneer in more ways than one. For one, she is China's No.1 sexologist - at least in terms of name recognition - and she is also frequently in the headlines because of many other things.

Li was the wife of Wang Xiaobo, a trail-blazing author who was among the first to live outside the state-sponsorship system. Besides his magnum opus - The Trilogy of Ages, i.e. Golden Age, Silver Age and Bronze Age - he penned many influential essays championing independence of thinking and helped his wife with her field investigation of sex-related topics. The fruits of their joint study surfaced in his literary works as well, for example, East Palace, West Palace.