SHANGHAI – A Japanese pornstar prepares for a performance inher dressing room, unruffled by furiousarguments outside among impatientChinese fans eagerly anticipatingher show.Mizuna was in China to cornerher share of its money-spinning sexproduct market.“Everyone is so passionate andI’m really happy,” the diminutiveporn star told AFP as heated exchangestook place outside.“I really didn’t think there wouldbe this much excitement.The rowdy scene at the GuangzhouNational Sex Culture Festivalwas a graphic illustration of howsexual taboos are loosening in theonce deeply conservative country –and the opportunities for those ableto exploit it.China is estimated to make morethan 80% of the world’s sex toys,with one million people employed inthe industry, but an increasing proportionof the products are stayingin the country to feed domestic demand.An adventurous generation ofyoung, mainly urban Chinese arepushing back the frontiers of whatis accepted, adopting attitudes farremoved from the puritan days ofradical Communist rule their parentslived under.Pornographic videos are bannedin China, but softer varieties and thewider sex product industry is booming.At the fair earlier this monthhundreds of sex doll makers, condomcompanies and vibrator distributorsvied for the attention of hundredsof thousands of visitors.At one end of the giant exhibitionhall, a transsexual model performedan outlandishly lewd act witha vibrator, occasionally departingfrom the stage to meet the audience. Elsewhere electronicgadgets emitted shrieks ofsexual rapture while youngermen barged their way throughtiny, crowded booths, siftingthrough rows of outfits fornurses, French maids and policewomen,and huge bins fullof ladies briefs as if seekingout ripe apples at a fruit market.Sexual inhibitions are leftat the door of the annual event,along with sexual partners forall but a few of the largely malevisitors.“We just came here tohave a look around,” said oneyoung man, clutching bags ofwomen’s clothes, small tubs ofcream and a huge supply offree condoms.He was among a hundredsstrongcrush of people whowaited for more than threehours to see Mizuna take thestage, handing out condomsand letting one lucky admirerpeck her on the cheek.Japanese porn stars — whoare known as AV (Adult Video)Girls in Asia — routinely performsong and dance routinesin China in a bid to sell theirsofter videos and raise theirprofiles as mainstream entertainers.They are wildly popularamong Chinese men, particularlyon China’s microbloggingwebsites.AV Girl Sora Aoi hasalmost 15 million followerson Sina Weibo,China’s version ofTwitter.Visitors look atsex toys displayed atthe Guangzhou SexCulture Festival. (AFPPhoto)‘A more westernisedculture’More than 2,000sex shops have beenset up in each of Beijingand Shanghaisince laws were relaxedin 1993, according tostate-run media, and the marketfor sex toys is growing at63% a year.“Our industry has changeda lot,” said Cheng Zichuan,owner of Hitdoll, one of China’stop sex doll manufacturers.Consumer attitudes haddeveloped dramatically sincethe company was set up sixyears ago, he added, sittingin the back seat of a speedboatnext to a 38,000 yuan(US$6,200) flame-haired sexdoll called Lydia, which hastechnologically advancedhands.“They all thought theseproducts were too expensiveand there was no place to buythem, and they would feel disgracedif the family saw thedolls,” he told AFP. “Now theydon’t mind, they buy the dollsif they like them and enjoy it,”he said, adding that he sold upto five a month, mainly to richsingle men who do not wantto “randomly hire prostitutes”and lonely widowers — who oftenbuy dolls custom-made toresemble their late wives. Recentstudies show the Chineseare not only becoming moreadventurous in the bedroom,but are also more willing tohave sex before they make firmrelationship commitments.More than 70% claimed tohave had pre-marital sex in areport last year by a prominentChinese sexologist, a huge leapfrom 40% in 1994 and 15% in1989.But the legal frameworksurrounding sex has yet toadapt to changing social mores.China’s minimum age formarriage stands at 22 for menand 20 for women — the highestin the world.Guangzhou Daming UnitedRubber Products, one ofChina’s largest condom makers,hopes to profit from hugegrowth predicted for the domesticcontraception market,and director Victor Chan saidthe younger generation wasadopting “a more westernisedculture”.But there are strict lawsrestricting condom advertisingand officially China remains“quite conservative”, he added,to the sound of electronicallygeneratedhowls of ecstasy.
