Sex in Contemporary China - Essay Example

Sex in Contemporary China The modern world is characterized by the existence of many cultures. This is because various parts of the world have developed independently, and in the course of their development, they have adopted unique ways of interacting with their environment. On the other hand, the various environmental conditions have helped in shaping up peoples attitudes and beliefs, which have had profound influences on how they respond to the environment. The technological advances have led to a free world where people have access to a lot of information. Exposure has led to the emergence of certain practices in the world that never existed in the ancient world. The Chinese people are revered for their rich store of culture. Rich cultural histories have made it possible to analyze and make comparisons between cultures in different ages, and their perceptions on sexuality. On the subject of sex and desire, the Chinese culture adopted a range of views that shaped their beliefs. The topic of sexuality was viewed differently in the ancient times than in the modern times. The various changes in Chinese sexual culture, in modern China, were influenced by reforms that begun in the early 1980s. These reforms introduced a different perception of sexuality. With the reforms, the Chinese government continuously lost its grip on the restrictions that it had imposed on the people, which limited sexual practices. However, the government also allowed for the continuation of certain sexual practices that have continued to the modern world, and had profound influences on the people’s sexual culture. The modern Chinese culture is rife with sexual practices that have their roots to the ancient cultures allowed during the Mao Zedong era. However, the practices changed during the reign of the Qing dynasty more than three thousand years ago. China has been characterized by changes in the patterns of sexual desire. The modern china is characterized by the prevalence of same-sex sexual desire. The same sex desire has taken the path of lesbianism and homosexuality. Lesbianism has had a long but hidden history. This practice existed in ancient times, when parents allowed their daughters to engage in latent lesbian activities to avoid public embarrassment of the family in case they got pregnant. Modernity has paved way for the increase in this practice because several arguments have been advanced to support the practice. Firstly, lesbianism in china is seen as more spiritual and less sexual. The prevalence of lesbianism can be traced back to the ancient times when the ancient leaders promoted homosexuality. This led to neglect of women in pursuance of sexual pleasure that resulted to women looking for other sources of sexual pleasure. The only resort was to unite with other females who shared the circumstances in a bid to satisfy their sexual desires. This practice was carried on to the modern world and has become more prevalent in china (Vosburg, 130). Secondly, the increase in number of same-sex relations has been followed by constant activism and lobbied for recognition. Coupled with the free world as a result of technological advancements, the Chinese culture has been under a lot of pleasure allowing for formal recognition of such practices. Although the Chinese laws prohibit Lesbianism, this sexual preference has been allowed a lot of freedom in China. The major cities in China are flooded with lesbian bars, cafes that give evidence for the prevalence of this practice. Thirdly, lesbianism has also been rampant in modern China because of independence among women. Access to education has made women attract well paying jobs, which has led to financial independence, a crucial role that was played by men in society (Vosburg, 133). Non dependence on men for the provision of basic needs has given women the freedom and will to choose their own path in life, including their sexual preference. The pressures of work give women limited time for interaction with their men. This has killed the desire that women have for the opposite sex, and has given way for the emergence of the same sex relations. The introduction of the one child policy by the Chinese government has relieved women from the burden of child rearing, and given them more freedom to attend lesbian functions, events, and group talks, a step that has strengthened the practice (Vosburg, 134). Modern China has also been a victim of homosexuality. Homosexuality has been prevalent in the Chinese culture more than lesbianism has. Although the government has restricted exposure of this practice in modern china, it continues secretly. Homosexuality can be traced back to the ancient times where this practice was allowed and considered normal. However, the enhancement of Christianity and Islam led to its opposition, and the practice was outlawed in the nineteenth and part of the twentieth century. Even though, humanity dictates the man as responsible for continuation of the family line, the practice has been rife in the twenty first century since it was legalized in late twentieth century. This can be attributed to the increase in cases of lesbianism due to freedom given by the government. Lesbianism has led to decrease in number of heterosexual women. This has made men resort to homosexuality to achieve their sexual desires (West, 26). In the ancient China, people were always oppressed by imperialism, national Weakness and civil war. These were the characteristics of pre-modern china, republican china and china after Mao. Sex civilization in china in the past was unthought-of (Forest 1). The common idea about Chinese families is that they are depicted as being stable outwardly. Sex was not a liberal topic to embrace in a communist country that was religious throughout the generations. The ancient Chinese was founded under the Confucianism teachings that were religious in nature. Sex was attributed to human nature (Forest 1). Sex was an act of the married people and a way of getting children it was not meant for personal pleasure. Furthermore, women were sexually differentiated against and enjoyed fewer rights than men. The teachings of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism all valued sex between married couples. Traditionally family was considered to be the supreme priority. People were proud of three generations living under one roof to express that family ties were strong and that the family was united. However, all these traditional values are gradually changing in the modern China. This is brought about by the fact that individuals are not getting married, because of growing competition parents are staying with their children and a couple is not giving birth. In 1949, Mao Zedong founded the People's Republic of China. After the enormous leap forward and Cultural Revolution, were two movements that caused china utter turmoil and poverty. Mao Zedong was a communist leader who believed in dominating leadership. The Chinese communism government aimed in controlling its subjects with little freedoms to individuals. Zedong had a theory of telling china to have several children in the 1950s -1960s. He believed that the more the better, because he wanted to create a powerful army that could destroy the U.S. During that period, hundreds of millions of more children were born in escalating numbers that sent the birth rate to 5.8 children per couple. This led to an imbalance of Chinas natural resource of food to sustain the populations as well as water and energy became lacking. This culminated in 20 million people starving to death in 1963, due to the rise in population in china. Mao died in 1973. Mao’s policies vindicated the rise of sex and desire among the Chinese people. During those times, sex was embraced more as families and even unmarried people participated in the procreation process as Mao wished. Teenage sex on those days was on the rise as well as sex among married couples. The first decree against homosexuality in China was effected in 1740. There are no recorded events to explain how effectively the law was utilized, but the most devastating event of Chinese homosexuals was, sarcastically, the enlightenment that came after the Self- strengthening Movement, when homophobia was imported to china along with western science as well as philosophy. Homosexuals that had undergone through so much negative influence had begun to think that they had a problem that required treatment. Homosexuality went subversive after the formation of the People's Republic of China. Socialist Puritanism sulked on homosexuality. The communist regime hounded homosexuals mainly during the Cultural Revolution, when several homosexuals were punished with length jail terms and sometimes execution (Chow 310). During those times, social tolerance of homosexuality declined drastically. After Mao’s death, his successor Deng Xiaoping, compulsory introduced the one child policy, which required that families can only have one child (Greenhalgh 208). Xiaoping was forced to enforce such policy because had almost doubled in 1949 where there were 1.1 billion people from 1550 million in 1900. Deng was aiming to avoid the Malthusian catastrophe, which entailed that if there was a large population of people, and it surpassed the line of how much a country’s resources could produce the outcome will be lots of civil wars and people fighting over the limited resources. He strongly believed in this theory and did his best to avoid it. He wished to keep the population smaller so that the economy can grow strongly and better the education of Chinese people. As Greenhalgh (234) puts it, this brought about the stick and carrot policy. This meant that those who lived by the law were rewarded with a carrot while those that disobeyed were punished with a stick. The sanctions provided that the disobeying parents were fined the second child were illegitimate as they were not registered as well as cannot attend school. The woman was forced to abort. The carrot reward meant that there were extra salary, larger house catered for by the government and if a woman aborted, she earned a vacation. The social impact of the policy is that numerous children have no siblings. Many Chinese are worried that this will affect their children who will become self-centered with no values of family. In addition, the policy led to prejudice touching the girl child as girls were killed in favor of boys. Currently the ratio of male to female in China stands at 117 to 100. The implications of this are that some males cannot get married, therefore, leading to increase in crime rates such as Kidnapping and prostitution. The policy by creating an unevenness of gender, as promoted existence of relationships among persons of the same gender (Chow 312). Male that lack female partners embrace homosexuality to cater for their pleasures. During the Cultural Revolution Mao Zedong decided to isolate china from the outside world. China did not have open relationships with international countries as he promoted internal economic growth in Chinese products (Davis 1). Two years following Mao’s death China was struggling to locate its political and economical direction. One group sustained the prolongation of the ideologies that Mao had, while the other faction led by Deng preferred more broadminded economic reforms. The Deng group gained control in 1978 and focused on economy reform domestically and internationally. Deng by creating the open door policy, China witnessed enormous increase in trade volumes due to the flexible policy that allowed Chinese businesspersons to conduct business with people from the capitalist countries. Since then Chinese economy has grown immensely, it currently lies behind the U.S as the world’s top economy (Davis 1). This means that whereas, during Zedong’s times, Chinas people were limited to Chinese culture and means of conducting business things were different in Deng’s times. Sex practices during Zedong times were still restricted to traditional values and requirements. However, in Deng’s time as Chinese people associated with different people worldwide trends begun to changes and are still changing. Through the mixing of cultures, sex practices have as well changed. Chinese sexual behaviors have changed from being total conservative to much liberal. Homosexuality and lesbianism are tolerable that before, and even the government position is not as strict as a few years back. Works cited Chow, Gregory. China’s Economic Transformation. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2007. Print. Davis, K. China’s foreign exchange reserve, 1977-2011, Chinability. Accessed on 27 March 2012 at, http://www.chinability.com/Reserves.htm Forrest, Simon. (n.d.). Sex Education That Works.  Accessed on 27 March 2012 at, Greenhalgh, Susan. Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng’s China. California: University of California Press, 2008. Print. Vosburg, Nancy, and Jacky Collins. Lesbian Realities/lesbian Fictions in Contemporary Spain. Lewisburg [Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 2011. Print. West, Donald J. Homosexuality: Its Nature and Causes. New Brunswick, N.J: AldineTransaction, 2008. Print. Read More