Changing Attitudes toward Sex in China Today

Abstract

For much of China’s history, the government was generally lax in enforcing laws pertaining to sexual behavior. Not until the twelfth century, in the Sung dynasty, did the government begin to develop a consistent policy of exercising control over the sexual life of the people, and official constraints on sexual expression developed into a pervasive cultural conservatism. By the beginning of the Ming dynasty, repressive institutions and policies were firmly in place and continued to be in force throughout the Ming and Ching dynasties. Thus, for example, writing about sex, and public discussion of the subject, were forbidden. Strict censorship and other controls persisted after the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912.