Porn looks dated at sex museum's explicit exposition

By Sandra Lee (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-11 10:12

Traversing China I continue to be delighted and surprised with its amazing juxtapositions of the very old and new. My recent trip to Tongli, another of China's beautiful water towns, is no exception.

Porn looks dated at sex museum's explicit exposition

The slow boat rides down ancient canals, past exquisite mansions, cobbled streets and arching bridges. Many of the lovely old buildings are still in use, including the China Sex Museum. The sex museum? Yup, Tongli has it all, including one of the world's few museums dedicated solely to all matters sexual.

If your purpose is to pay 20 yuan and romp around in a titillating porno palace, you will be terribly disappointed. The purpose of the museum's founder, professor Liu Dalin, is to add to our body of knowledge, not necessarily our knowledge of bodies. He is an esteemed professor of sociology and the author of many books on love, marriage and sex.

There is lot to see and the museum is divided into sections, including: Sex in Primitive Society, Marriage and Women, Sex in Daily Life and Unusual Sexual Behavior.

Then there's the matter of taste. In English we talk about "good taste" and "bad taste". Which is highly subjective. Visiting people's homes and seeing what people wear shows that what is elegant to one is hopelessly garish to another. How can one design a sex museum that is in good taste and not just an exhibition for the prurient?

Visit the China Sex Museum and I'm sure you'll agree they pulled it off. The museum is housed in a gorgeous group of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) buildings, formerly the Lize Girl's School, and surrounded by a lovely garden. The statuary in the garden all relate in some way to matters sexual. Some are sweet, goddesses and fully clothed courtesans, while others are startling in their graphic portrayals. The garden sets the tone. It says that this is a place of beauty and respect for that oldest of human endeavors, but be prepared for explicitness. Fair enough.

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