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Posts tagged ‘sex’

Aug 28

Miss Universe China Bikini Competition, photo by Emma Zhang

Miss Universal Values

The band was playing Cocaine as the small entourage entered but it was highly doubtful any of them would ever touch the stuff: these were international representatives of China, “athletes” in a land of contradictions, competing for fresh spoils.

After years of half-organized humiliations, the country is determined to seize an unusual new prize this September: Miss Universe, a controversial trophy offered by a US organization headed by the failed Presidential candidate and China-basher, Donald Trump.

The stiffly embossed invitations to the after-party offered the opportunity to “mingle with stars, celebrities and Beijing’s elite” but, despite the dozens desperate for a moment, or ideally a picture, next to one, none of those at the centre of this civilized scrum were remotely famous (yet). They are the finalists from this year’s Miss Universe China – the grand pageant, an impressively well-organized, if somewhat dull, event in Beijing’s Mastercard Center, had just finished. Read more

Aug 24

"Spring Palace" - Ming Dynasty porn

A brief history of Chinese porn

The origins of Chinese erotica and pornography can be traced way back into antiquity. Though remnants have been found dating from as early as the 1st century, production of erotic artwork appears to have properly flourished around the 10th century and reached its peak during the late Ming Dynasty (17th century).
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Aug 23

peoplespornography s

People’s Pornography – An interview with Katrien Jacobs

China has a long tradition of erotic art but pornographic films and pictures are currently illegal. Despite frequent anti-porn clampdowns, pornography remains available both online and in the form of DVDs.

A paper titled A Peep at Pornography Web in China compiled by scholars at Xi’an Jiatong University is one of the few authoritative sources of pornography statistics. The scholars examined “part of network traffic in Northwest Net of China, from Mar. 29 2009 to Jan. 25 2010″ and “collected 92,950 online porn web pages from 1,826 porn sites” of which only 12.8% were hosted on servers inside China. The paper looks at usage patterns of the people detected visiting porn sites, but does not attempt to derive any numbers about porn use nationwide.

Nonetheless, anecdotal evidence suggests demand for porn in China is growing. Aside from professionally produced films, there is a growing subculture of DIY porn movies, which is one of the subjects Dr. Katrien Jacobs examines in her new book, People’s Pornography: Sex and Surveillance on the Chinese Internet.

James Griffiths recently interviewed Dr. Jacobs about her new book:
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