In China, sex is typically a lightly discussed topic; but with more economic freedom comes more sexual freedom, or so many would argue. There have been several recent cultural phenomena that are possible signs of such increased sexual liberation in China, or, depending on who you ask, signs of the apocalypse. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

1) Nüren Bang Niu’er – China’s racy new TV show
There is an interesting and mildly entertaining new show in China called Nüren Bang-Niu’er (女人帮.妞儿). Here’s a sample scene: A young women receives a gift from her male colleague and it just happens to be a sex toy, per traditional Chinese courtship customs. The girl takes the sex toy home and manages to turn on the toy just as her dad shows up for a surprise visit. The girl can’t turn off the toy so she stuffs it into the cushions of the couch and invites her father inside and then he promptly sits on the couch and notices the strange buzzing noise echoing through the living room. Jump to the end of the scene, the dad discovers the vibrator, loses his mind and the girl breaks every law of filial piety and screams at her dad that it’s her life and she can have a vibrator if she damn well pleases, thank you very much.

The show is actually pretty good. It follows the exploits, sexual and otherwise, of four young Chinese girls living in Beijing. They pepper the show with quite a few F-bombs and “cao ni” and “shabis”. Storyline topics range from mistresses—one girl is even sleeping with her boss’ husband—to sex toy escapades to smoking weed to promiscuous, drunken sex. All the things that make a great television show if you ask me.

Honestly though, I was pretty shocked to see these things on a Chinese TV show. Sure, this would hardly lift an eyebrow in America or Europe, but this is China with its censorship and old people dictating what is socially acceptable for everyone else.

My opinions notwithstanding, it’s interesting that this show hasn’t come up against the censors. Currently, it is on LeTV and not on the normal Chinese television channels, but even so, there will probably be some controversy surrounding it’s rather risqué plots. There’s a good chance that other shows will pop up like this one and further push the boundaries of what is acceptable for current Chinese consumers.

2) Momo – the popular new hookup app
Don't think that televisions are the sole vehicle for the downfall of traditional Chinese norms on sex. Sure, there are plenty of prostitutes that ply their trade on WeChat, but I’m fairly sure that wasn’t the express purpose of WeChat. Momo (http://www.immomo.com/ ) is a little bit different from the other random IM app services that saturate our iPhones because Momo, advertently or inadvertently, has a reputation as a great hookup tool and one-night-stand-provider for many young people, Chinese or otherwise. Like WeChat, the app is location based, so it is presumably fairly easy to find someone in your building or your neighborhood looking for a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am. The app has over 16 million current users so apparently your one night stand application pool is fairly deep.

3) Orgies!
Now we are getting into the juicy stuff. According to this Slate.com article, hilariously titled ‘Sexy Spring’, group sex parties are becoming all the rage in China, and, uh, Iran, but let’s focus on China for now.  The article partly follows the exploits of 53 year old Ma Yaohai, a professor in Nanjing and two time divorcee who has become an ‘accidental orgiast’ (here’s how I imagine Ma’s first time went down: “Ah, woah, just walked into a room full of people sexing each other…might as well stick around and see if I can slip in without anyone noticing). Well, old, ambitious Ma pretty soon started organizing his own orgies under the screen name “bighornyfire” (awesome) and at one point had around 190 members participating (presumably not all at the same time). Anyway, to make a long story short, Ma eventually got busted by the police and landed in prison for three and half years due to whatever obscure law governs orgies in China.

There was the typical hoopla you’d expect from somebody’s grandpa getting thrown in jail for hosting massive sex Olympics. As expected, some people said it was poisoning Chinese culture and contributing to the moral decay of society. I’m sure someone said it hurts Chinese people’s feelings at one point. Others, notable Ma, said they were all consenting adults just doin’ a little swingin’ baby! (Not a direct quote).

Economic freedom = Sexual freedom?

So, to recap, here is my not-at-all-scientific thesis on why sex is becoming an increasingly public topic here in China. When the money starts pouring into the coffers people don’t have to listen to what their elders or morality police have to say because they have great economic clout. This is especially true in regards to young people who grew up with more wealth than previous Chinese generations. These are just a few examples, certainly not enough to make broad, sweeping statements about contemporary Chinese society, but at least they are interesting signs of potentially greater changes to come.

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Keywords: sexual liberation in China Chinese TV show