Masturbation in China: Survey Reveals Intriguing Results

Masturbation in China: Survey Reveals Intriguing Results
Jul 02, 2013 By eChinacities.com

Editor’s note: this translated article looks at the results of a recent survey undertaken at Guangzhou’s Sun Yat-sen University. The survey asked a total of 190 students what their views on masturbation were and whether or not they masturbated and how frequently they did it. The survey followed a video showing students discussing the topic which went viral in April 2013, and represents a controversial, yet progressive step in the attitudes towards masturbation in China. The ongoing project has currently seen over 50 videos submitted showing students discussing the topic of masturbation. The results do show that gender had a distinct effect on the findings of the survey. However the project, the first of its kind in China, was largely well-received by many in the media.

Recently, a survey asking students about their views on masturbation was carried out by a newspaper of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. The survey followed a video which was released online in April 2013 which saw students discuss the topic of masturbation. Among the results, it was revealed that 85.86% of those asked had previously masturbated, while 28.27% even stated they believed it was beneficial for their health if done in moderation. One thing that’s worth mentioning is that there were clear disparities regarding the answers given by males and females, a factor which is detailed in the following results.

40% masturbate 1-3 times a week

In March 2013, students at Sun Yat-sen University partook in a video where they discussed their feelings towards masturbation. Upon its release in April, the video quickly went viral on Weibo, with the subject of masturbation becoming a hotly discussed topic. To get a deeper look into what the students of Sun Yat-sen University really thought about masturbation, a survey asking 190 students was undertaken by a research group on May 30. Within the survey, 103 men (54.21%) and 87 women (45.79%) were asked.     

The results showed that 58.64% of the students thought masturbating was perfectly normal behaviour. As to whether masturbation was right or wrong, only 8.9% of the students asked believed it was immoral, while 28.27% stated they thought masturbation had health benefits. 85.86% of those surveyed stated that they had previously masturbated, while 55.36% of those asked revealed that they had masturbated within the past one to three days. 39.29% said that they frequently masturbated between once and three times a week. Upon being asked what they thought of during masturbation, 32.74% said they imagined their own sexual fantasies with a partner; 48.87% stated that they imagined the person that they liked, while 13.53% explained that they thought of famous people during masturbation.

Gender a huge factor in the dividing of opinions

Within the results of the survey, the gender factor played a key role in the illustration of disparities. The results showed that 96.15% of the men interviewed said yes when they were asked if they had masturbated before, while only 70% of the women asked admitted they had. Regarding masturbatory habits, 56% of the men interviewed revealed that they masturbated between one to three times a week, while only 14.71% of women said they did the same. Furthermore, roughly 40% of the women featured in the survey ticked the “hardly ever, barely a few times a year” box when being asked about the frequency of their masturbation. When asked if they had ever imagined sexual fantasies with a partner during masturbation, 32% of women said no, which is notably higher than the 13% of men who admitted they also hadn’t. From these figures, it can perhaps be said that women hold a much more “negative” stance on masturbation in general.

Pei Yuxin is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Sun Yat-sen University, and was one the first people to truly get behind and advocate the study of masturbation. In early 2004, Pei began researching masturbation and set up the group that undertook the aforementioned survey after she applied for support from the Ford Foundation in November 2011. After the release of the video in April 2013 which saw appreciation from over 13,000 people online, the group received an amount of 10,000 RMB from the foundation to further the project.

Many expressed praise over the project; however the survey and the subsequent videos uploaded online discussing the topic also stirred up a fair amount of controversy and received abuse from some. Up until now, there have been over 50 contributions of videos from those who have also discussed the topic of masturbation, with the video “It’s All About Crape-Myrtle (关于紫薇的一切)” winning the 10,000 RMB prize for their participation in the project. The video can be viewed here.

Source: Ifeng

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Keywords: masturbation survey China masturbation masturbation in China

3 Comments

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molihua

紫葳/zi3wei1 "crape-myrtle"? what a funny way of translating the euphemism for 自慰/zi4wei4!

Aug 19, 2013 01:04 Report Abuse

Guest2304000

Wanking huh!

Jul 02, 2013 21:34 Report Abuse

DaqingDevil

Here's another statistic that can be quoted from that study. 96.15% of men said they masturbated which means 3.85% of men are liars!!! Anyway, it's refreshing to see the country getting involved in studies of sexual habits even though most of us already know a fair bit about this topic.

Jul 02, 2013 06:59 Report Abuse