Porn looks dated at sex museum's explicit exposition
By Sandra Lee (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-11 10:12
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Entering the first building, the exhibits relating to primitive society are often carvings, both people and animals of all kinds having sex. Lest you get the giggles, it carefully explains that these were objects of worship because the ancients worshipped sex -- and nothing much has changed over the intervening period.
The section called Marriage and Women might make a feminist cringe. It appears from the exhibition that most of the sexual history of women is about their sublimation and degradation. The museum points this out and seems to have scholarly sympathy for their plight through the ages.
Moving on to Sex in Daily Life, one finds the sex instruction scrolls called Pillow Books in the West. These make present day texts to educate the youngsters seem like very pale pudding, indeed. They are explicit and move well beyond the "missionary position". Many of them are wildly funny.
Now that we have been inured to multiple portrayals of "the act" we move into Part 4, Unusual Sexual Behavior, which is described as "opposite to the common sexual behavior of most people". This seems to be rapidly changing, as any glance at modern mores shows that "most people" are quickly expanding the definition of "common", and of "unusual", for that matter.
We all know that China is where gunpowder, paper, moveable type printing and the compass were invented. To add to this list of pride is the invention of the chastity belt and "sex tools", some of precious jade.
Today's news abounds with stories about how to protect youth from seeing sexual content. With the museum's 9,000 years of evidence of interest in the topic, I say "good luck."