It was a packed house at the Crystal Room in the Glamour Bar Sunday morning as around 70 of the city's freakiest sexual deviants descended on the Shanghai International Literary Festival for a group session with sexology academic James Farrer. It was an early 12pm for most in attendance, with most guests gingerly sipping on their first glass of wine and wearily wiping last night's sex out of their eyes. The stench of stale lube hung heavily in the air as Farrer took his position at the helm of the group and we were ready to get busy.


The title of the talk was "A Literary Sexual Revolution: Sexuality and Contemporary Chinese Fiction." As a published sociologist having undertaken extensive research into Chinese youth culture and sexuality, Farrer was also in an authoritative position to discuss the sex lives of young Chinese: Do they do it? When? How often? And with whom or what?

Farrer's talk was anchored around his 2002 book about the Chinese "Sexual Revolution," Opening Up: Youth Sex Culture and Market Reform in Shanghai. Early on he conceded that the book is a bit outdated, but he stands by his original argument concerning the existence and character of the much debated sexual revolution. Farrer argues that although Chinese society as a whole is undergoing an ideological shift in their attitudes towards sex, the sexual revolution can be characterized more as a "romantic revolution" with newly defined conceptions of private space, idealized romantic love, and a sustained conservatism towards the concept of female virginity. And these new ideas erupted in the mid ‘80s rather than with the invention of Maoming Lu—hitherto recognized as the sexual revolution ground zero.

So basically China's sexual revolution is really boring, a little depressing, and people are not, in fact, having any sex. Farrer supported this argument by citing recent findings in surveys comparing sex rates and attitudes between Chinese and Japanese students, wherein it was discovered that Japanese students had intimate relationships earlier, were having more sex, and didn't subscribe to the idea that women should remain virgins until married. This was contrasted with findings that Chinese students tended to be extremely conservative in their attitudes both towards getting into relationships (they don't until their final year of university), and to the idea of virginity. According to the statistics Ferrer rattled off at the start of his speech, every student in China fanatically moralizes virginity except for, presumably, one dude in rural Xi'an who's just up for whatever.

He also pointed to recent Chinese literature, which as a "site of sexual politics," really utilizes sex as a platform to make ideological arguments for Confucian balance in the social sphere, familial conservatism, and anti-commercialism. So rather than an end unto itself, sex is interwoven into a larger moral argument concerning personal conduct and social stability. The talk was a bit of a let-down for those of us in attendance seeking a little afternoon delight in the form of a jubilant academic and literary celebration of the liberation of the nasty.

Ferrer touched briefly on the common pornography vs. prostitution debate, when asked why pornography is so cracked down upon whereas prostitution is an open and widespread phenomenon. Tying his response back in with his thesis, Farrer argued that pornography is seen as a social phenomenon: it's on the internet, accessible by children, and therefore presumably in the home directly attacking the fabric of the family. Prostitution, on the other hand, is seen as a private commercial transaction and therefore contained to that particular demographic of sleazy, aged businessman. Oh.

Another point of interest: Did you know that group sex is illegal in China and punishable by five years in jail?

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