The question of sex and modernity in China, part 2

This chapter addresses the question of sex and modernity in China, from the mid- to late twentieth century. It begins by critiquing Western intellectuals’ fascination with ancient Chinese sexuality, including Michel Foucault (1926–1984) and Robert van Gulik (1910–1967). By the late 1960s and 1970s, a number of Daoist practitioners of Chinese heritage promoted sexual cultivation techniques, mixed with popular sexology and New Age spirituality, in Europe and America. Sexuality in the Cultural Revolution era is then discussed. While Western observers described Maoist China as ‘asexual’ or ‘perverted’, recent scholarship paints a more complicated picture – repression and subjugation were part of a wider landscape that also included sexual experimentation and transgression. Finally, the chapter explores the ‘sexual revolution’ (xing geming 性革命) that took place in China from the 1980s. The Chinese state sponsored knowledge of sexual health and ‘sexual happiness’ to encourage ‘proper’ kinds of sexualities.