The citizens of the south-west city of Chongqing are none to happy about the latest attraction opening soon their city. It's
China's first sex themed amusement park and the locals think it's "vulgar."
Lu Xiaoqing, the parks manager, says the idea came from South Korea's
sex themed park in the city of Jeju. The park will open in October of
this year and it is hoped that this attraction will "will improve sex
education and help adults enjoy a harmonious sex life."
Once inside visitors are treated to exhibits of giant replicas of
genitals, naked human sculptures, and "history of sex and sexual
practices in other countries." You can also take a sex techniques
workshop and get anti-AIDS information, including how to use a condom.
Lu Xiaoqing told the China Daily, the state news paper "We are
building the park for the good of the public. I have found that the
majority of people support my idea, but I have to pay attention and not
make the park look vulgar and nasty."
Some who object to the park are people like Liu Daiwei, a female
Chongqing police officer. She said "These things are too exposed. I
will feel uncomfortable looking at them when other people are around."
An unnamed commentator on the Chinese website Sina echoed these
sentiments. The commentator said "Chinese people did not treat sex as
boldly as foreigners" and that "These vulgar sex installations will
only make people sick."
There are those who think it's a good idea. A "sexual attitudes" expert
from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said "The fact that the
park has been built shows the change and that open attitudes to sex are
now mainstream." She sites a study showing that premarital sex has
risen from 16% in 1989 to more than 60% in 2004.
She attributes negative attitudes about sex due to disapproval
"...from religion in the west." and that in China "it was largely
rooted in a traditional focus on the family instead of individual
enjoyment – leading people to deplore premarital and extramarital sex."
She hopes, that through places like this, peoples attitudes will become
more tolerant and positive toward sex. She notes the need, in China, to
be more attentive to the female side of the issue. She sites a study
where women in the west experienced orgasms about 90% of the time.
Where as for Chinese women the number was only 28%.