Growing Up Sexually

CHINA / People’s Republic of China

Index → Asia → China

Also: Hong Kong, Taiwan

Historical Data

Prepubertal Betrothal / Marriage

Minor Marriage

Sexual Education

Sexual Socialisation

Sexual Behaviour Development

Courtship

Age Stratified Patterns

Historical Data

Despite extensive writing on Chinese sexology, little insight is gained from ancient Chinese concepts of sexual development, at least in English language writings. In the novel Ko-lien-hua-ying (“Flower Shadows on a Window Blind”)[1], tho girls explore and imitate sexual activities. A useful paper is offered by Linck-Kesting (1985)[2]. The author writes that during the Tang period, sexual intercourse with girls under age 12 was considered rape regardless of consent; the girls were pubescent at age 13, sometimes 12. During the Ming period, it was observed that 13-year-olds would not know the meaning of desire, whereas one or to years later this would be the case (p93). The legal age of social adulthood varied considerably between dynasties, from 15 (Han) to 25 (Tang) and back to 16 (Qing). Data on age of marriage (cf. infra) are diverse, but incidental cases of pubescent marriage for girls were noted (p107, 110). The most likely age for girls was in early pubescence. Adoption marriage from age six (child bride institution, tong yang xi) can be traced in all ages (p111-2). Chinese women paid Buddhist priests to deflower their daughters before marriage. This was usually done when the girls were aged seven to nine years of age[3].

“Young girls of mid-Ch’ing times may not have received any sex education from mothers or peers, but no young girl receiving these messages could be in doubt about the purpose of her marriage. In fact […] since girls were betrothed as early as eight, and dowry was assembled from the time of betrothal, learning about marriage through the dowry was a nearly lifelong process for some women” (Mann, 1994:p35)[4].Woodside and Elman ( (1994:p525)[5] mark that Huang Yen-p’ei surveyed that whereas “Western education esteemed the natural and imparted a proper sex education to both male and female pupils; late imperial Chinese education based itself on coercion, segregated the sexes, and was reticient about human reproduction”.

A first nation-wide survey of sexual behaviour in China (1992)[6] observed that there is “still no national policy, curriculum, or teaching aid for sex education in China: 33.1 percent of the schools had difficulties with offering sex education because of a lack of support and materials”.

Nippon Ishigaku Zasshi. 2002 Jun;48(2):205-17.        Related Articles, Links            

[A study of the sexual art of having intercourse with several young virgins in traditional Chinese medicine]

[Article in Japanese]

Yan S.

“It is a fact that in ancient China some people used the sexual art of having intercourse with several young virgins at the same time in order to increase their health and keep perpetual youth and longevity. The famous traditional general-medical book, "qian jin yao fang" recommended that method to rich persons too. It is supposed that the beginning of the sexual art of having intercourse with several young virgins traces back to the times of Emperor Hanwu , but it seems to have disappeared from the historical stage in the Song period. On the other hand, the criticisms from the traditional medicine books and the secret languages of internal alchemy used for the Taoist sacred books show that the sexual art of having intercourse with several young virgins was still going on behind the scene in the Ming and Qing periods” (Yan, 2002)[7].

Additional refs.:

• Miller (1995:p237-41)[8] examines the theme of adolescent sexuality in Cao Xueqin's eighteenth-century novel Honglou meng (Dream of the Red Chamber)

Prepubertal Betrothal / Marriage

In the period till 771 BC, menarche indicated marriageable age; the minimum age was radically raised by Han Confucians. During the Ming period there was again early betrothal (Van Gulik, [1974:p18, 57, 265]). 12^th-century Yüan Ts’ai[9] warned for childhood engagements. In 1855, Huc[10] commented that “[n]othing is more common than to arrange a marriage during the infancies of the parties, or even before their birth”. Nevius (1868:p253)[11] noted that, “[i]n cases where infanticide is common, males predominate to such an extent that it is difficult for parents to obtain wives for their sons, and they often make arrangements with a family which has an infant daughter to spare her life and betroth her to their son […]”. Smith (1899:p260)[12] speaks of early betrothal, early marriage, and even “rearing-marriage” (adoption by parents-in-law; cf. infra). However, “[i]n contrast to India, child marriages were exceptional in China, although the betrothal of small and even unborn children, while illegal, was common (Lang, 1946:p36; Wolf, 1980)[13]. According to Fei (1939:p40)[14], arrangements for marriage were made at age six or seven.

In ancient China, betrothal of unborn children was forbidden, but between families of long established friendship the custom was quite common. The usual age for affiancing children was between seven and fourteen (Baber, 1934:p134)[15]. For an elaborate description of the custom of infant betrothal as practised before 1911 in the conservative I-ch’ang districts, see Han-yi and Shryock (1950)[16]. The minimum age for marriage was not laid down in the Colonial system. However, it seems to follow from Section 375 of the Penal Code that thirteen is the lowest at which a woman can fully enter marriage; if she is below that age, her husband commits rape when having sexual intercourse with her. Freedman (1950:p120)[17] states: “There does not appear to have ever been a tradition among the Chinese to marry very young girls and child betrothal did not lead to sexual relations until the wife was mature”, contrary to the (unlawful) antenatal betrothal by Chinese peasants in Singapore (1957:p104)[18]. The 1931 Code placed minimum ages at sixteen for girls and eighteen for boys.

The Marriage Law of 1950, promulgated at May 1, bans child betrothal[19].

However, in more impoverished rural areas the reorganisation of farm labour in the household responsibility system combined with the perceived shortage of marriage partners has resulted in the revival of child betrothal arrangements (Croll, 1994:p169; Rai, 1994:p125; Harrell and Davis, 1993:p10n26)[20].

“For the rural population, marriage is not a personal matter that involves emotional commitment and romantic affection but a family responsibility of prolonging their paternal line. Therefore, in many families, the marriage of their son is a family affair and every member will have to work hard and save every penny for the dowry. If it is necessary, a family may sell its daughters to raise money to purchase a wife or to exchange with another family for a daughter-in-law. Arranged baby marriage also exists in many rural areas”[21].

Most Lolo (SCCS: 2+,2+,2+,2+,2-,2-;9,9;E) groups marry at puberty, although “some Lolos marry quite early, even at the age of four to five years” (Siang-Feng Ko, 1949:p491-2)[22], or are betrothed as infants (LeBar et al., 1964). In general, “The age of puberty is a major juncture for youngsters of all nationalities. However, many of the minority nationalities [of China] encourage the marriage of their children before they mature, and thus follow the footsteps of the older generations”[23].

Minor Marriage

Among the turn-of-the-century Taiwanese, the practice of minor marriage combined with a highly competitive marriage market drove the age of the brides downward, below puberty (Ying-Chang and Wolf, 1995:p793)[24]. In some instances, families would avoid marriages to strangers by adopting girls when infants and raising them with their sons so they can marry their “sisters” (Wolf, 1968)[25]. This type of marriage is known under the name of Sim pua (Wolf, 1966, 1970, 1995)[26]. Wolf (1980):

“A girl raised as a sim-pua did not finally enter into a conjugal relationship until some time after puberty, when she and her fiancé were presented to his ancestors. The occasion was usually the eve of the lunar New Year, when family members gathered behind ciosed doors for a feast and a private ceremony known asui-lo. Whereas the wedding marking the consummation of a major marriage was a festive, colorful, noisy event, which people approvingly call lau-ziet, the consummation of a minor marriage was a drab affair. There was never a bridal procession, usually there were no guests, and often such ritual as was appropriate to the occasion was neglected. Asked if she and her brother had worshipped his ancestors to announce their marriage, one elderly informant replied, “People were supposed to do that, but we didn’t bother. My father just told us it was time for us to sleep together”. Another woman described her “wedding” and the preparations preceding it as follows: “When I was sixteen years old my mother told me it was time for me to marry my brother. She helped me make new clothes, and my father bought me some jewelry. There wasn’t any feast and we didn’t worship the ancestors. My father just said something at dinner and after that we slept together”.

Murphy (2001)[27]:

“minor marriage, or adopting in a daughter-in-law (yangsinvu; M: tongyang xifu), was the logical extreme of childhood betrothal. Some families chose to adopt in an infant girl, often to be nursed at the future mother-in-law's breast, because it eliminated the high cost of a major marriage and minimized the potential conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law that threatened family harmony and scarred so many women's lives. Of the 70 marriages into Willow Pond [Village (a pseudonym), a rice-farming community on the Yangzi Delta, 50 km west of Shanghai] before 1955 (when the last yangsinvu marriage occurred), thirteen (or 19 per cent) were minor marriages”.

Sexual Education

Yang (1945:p114)[28] stated that no sex instruction was given, but also that things “have recently begun to change”. The subject of sex in jokes is taboo even among adolescents, although boys, unlike girls, may go naked until age ten in summer (p128, 127). Fang-fu Ruan and Lau (1997)[29] stated that “sexual play and sex rehearsal play, both alone and with peers, are punished when discovered. Such behavior is seldom if ever reported or commented on in public”.

“In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, not only was there a complete lack of systematic sex education, but only a few booklets on sexuality had been published”, so that eight to nine hundred million people for more than twenty years had to do with only a few pages discussing aspects of sexual relationships such as arousal, sexual responses, and frequency of intercourse”.

In 1984, Shek and Mak[30] argued that (1) sex education has never been a formal subject, (2) few other subjects have components related to sex education, and (3) subjects which might include sex education are not offered at all schools. Until recently, “open public discussion of sexuality topics was taboo in China”[31]. A study by Shu et al. (1997)[32] was to investigate sexual knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of fifth and sixth grade students in aboriginal elementary schools in the Ping-Tung area. The results as summarised by the authors: “(1) The sexual knowledge score was low but sexual attitudes showed a positive trend. (2) 64.7% and 67.4% of students had at some time seen pictures of male or female sexual organs. (3) About 61% of students had seen sexual magazines or videotapes. (4) 66.2% of male and 88.1% of female students had heard about wet dreams or menstruation before their first experience; more than half of the students thought that wet dreams need treatment. (5) 17.8% of students had masturbation experience, and after that 59.3% of students had fear or guilt feeling. (6) Female students had significantly higher knowledge and attitude scores than male students, demographic variables produced no significant difference in the above scores. (7) 42.4% of students most desired to know what phenomena indicate sexual maturity. (8) Sex knowledge had significantly positive correlation with sex attitude”.

Evans[33] argues that “the explosion of sexually explicit material since the 1980s and the transformation of sexual practices among urban young people suggest the emergence of a new sexual culture in China’s urban centers”. Zhang et al.[34] argued that “[s]ince the one-child family and open door policies in the 1970s and the economic reforms of the 1980s, attitudes toward sexuality in the People’s Republic of China have changed. Premarital sex has become widely accepted among young people”. Data from 1988 indicated that teenagers in China do not find premarital sex to be acceptable, yet they seem to be tolerant of those who engage in sexual activity[35]. Compared to Western societies, the rates of masturbation and homosexual experience were much lower than those of the Western youths in the same age range[36].

In a senior high school in the Weicheng District of Weifang City, 47.9% of male students and 63.8% of female students did not have previous knowledge about puberty, 39.9% of boys and 52.2% of girls felt puzzled and disgusted with the onset of puberty (Guang-Ren, 1997)[37]. About 18% of boys and about 2% of girls reported masturbation. The average frequency of masturbation was 3.5 times a month in the boys and two times monthly in girls. Adolescents acquired sexual knowledge and information predominantly from magazines (25.8% of boys and 28.0% of girls). About 64% of boys and 44% of girls wanted to be given educational programs on sex.

Sexual Socialisation

DeMause[38] states [orig. footnotes]:

“ […] reliable research on childhood sexuality [DeMause means abuse] is somewhat more limited than for India. Although parents traditionally sleep with their children until they are adolescents, [[39]] exactly what happens in Chinese family beds has not yet been much investigated, although some observers have reported that Chinese girls, like Indian, have no trace of a hymen, supposedly because caretakers “clean the sexual organs of the little children during daily washings [...] so scrupulously [...]”[[40]] […]. During adolescence, youths were instructed to have intercourse with young girls who have “undeveloped breasts”, but to practice “moderation” by withholding their semen” [[41]].

Mitchell and Lo (1968:p317)[42] reported that mothers in Hong Kong would punish their children or tell them that such behaviour was “dirty” if they found them “playing with themselves”. Ho (1986:p5)[43] reviewed that sex training was among the most severe of all child-rearing areas (cf. Ho and Kang, 1984)[44]. However, Muensterberger (1951 [1969:p306])[45] observed that genital play was “not forbidden” in southern China. [See further Chan (1990)[46] and Bo and Wenxiu (1992)[47]]. Scofield and Sun (1960:p223)[48] found that oral, sex, dependence and aggression training are all more severe for Chinese generally than for Americans, the exception being toilet training (cf. Wilson, 1970:p26)[49]. According to the table, infants are never naked, sexual exploration/interest in bodies and sex play are punished, and nudity is shamed; training is continuous from birth. Compared to immigrant Chinese, Euro-Americans are more accepting of nudity[50]. “Playing with oneself” is seen as very indecent behaviour damaging health, and children are taught this attitude from a young age[51]. In urban Hong Kong, Mitchell and Lo (1968:p317)[52] found that sex differences were marginal in sex and modesty training. “Nine of the 10 mothers of the dependent [as a character trait] children say they would use physical punishment if they found their children playing with themselves. Only 2 of the other 10 mothers report they would do this. In their response to questions on this topic, the latter mothers said that they would explain to their children that playing with themselves is bad for their health and that they should not do it again; some of these mothers also would tell their children that such behavior is “dirty”. However, what is important is that they would verbally explain to their children- thereby bringing the children into an adult conversation- rather than physically punish them”.

Hu and Wu (1997)[53] presented survey data on the sexual development of Chinese youth and how it compares with youth in other countries.

Chinese women would often use the “primal scene” argument to resist the sexual demands of their husbands (Jankowiak, 1989:p78)[54].

Additional refs.:

• Yang, M. M. C. (1967) [Child Training and Child Behavior in Varying Family Patterns in a Changing Chinese Society], Kuo Li Tai-wan Ta Hsueh She Hui Hsueh K’an [National Taiwan Univ J Sociol] 3:77-83

Sexual Behaviour Development

Childhood Sexual Experience was a factor in the 1999-2000 U-Chicago Chinese Health and Family Life Survey (Section 13), the raw data and codebook of which can be downloaded from the linked page in SPSS format.

Courtship

Before the Cultural Revolution, marriages were “unambiguously an alliance between families” mediated by match-makers (Hershatter, p238)[55]. During the Revolution, “vital and numerous love songs came under heavy fire” due to the suppression of folksongs devoid of overt politcal content (Mackerras, 1984:p198)[56]. Courtship was effected primarily by song, such as among the Hmong and Bai minority (Mackerras, 1988:p62)[57].

Age Stratified Patterns

Age-stratified homosexuality was said to be “a common form of relationship in many periods of Chinese history” (Hinsch, 1990:p11)[58], but is all but a clear picture. De Becker (p52, 55) observed that female pages and prostitutes were recruited as early as age five to seven years, put through an initiation at age 13 or 14. Contrary to DeMause’s claims, I have found no evidence of “child geisha’s”, the records from the early 20th century indicating 14 as the lower extreme (Dalby, 1983:p194-8).

Breiner[59] argued that ancient Chinese societies had known comparatively low levels of child “abuse”, including sexual abuse. Nevertheless, Jacobus X ([1893] 1898, I:p115)[60] states: “Like the Romans had their Pathici, Ephebi, Gemelli, Amasii, the Chinese have their sio kia a, little boys, sio kia tsia, pretty little boys […]”. In Peking, “young boys of from 11 to 12 years old are trained to the service of masculine prostitution. They are all dressed up as girls and they are taught all the coquetries of the opposite sex; these precocious debaucheses are incompletely castrated at the age of from 14 to 15 years, unhappy creatures neither men nor women”. Buschan ([1921:p249])[61] stated that, particular in Northern and coastal China, boys were prepared for prostitution from childhood on, the so-called Sian-Kôn. Drew and Drake (1969:p97-107)[62] state that the process of feminisation of boys destined to be prostitutes “began at least by the age of five and often earlier. Although a boy was sometimes purchased and trained after he was ten, it was believed impossible to achieve perfection in the training of a boy after that age”. The boys were shaped physically (muscle growth was prevented, etc.), locomotorically and philosophically in the art of pleasure.

Qing (1644-1912) rape laws had specific subcategories for successful rape of a boy between ages 10 and 12, successful rape of a boy under the age of 10, and of sexual intercourse with a boy between the ages 10 and 12 (Ng, 1987:p67)[63]. The previous author came across “cases involving the seduction of young boys or young men by their Confucian teachers, and the seduction of neophytes by Buddhist monks” (p68). It has been observed that the current negative stance toward homosexuality is for a part due to the huge impact of the West from the 19th century on. One British official (Hinsch, p141)[64] stated that “The commission of this detestable and unnatural act is attended with so little shame, or feeling of delicacy that many of the first officers of the state seemed to make no hesitation in publicly avowing it. Each of these officers is constantly attended by his pipe-bearer, who is generally a handsome boy, from fourteen to eighteen years of age, and is always well dressed”. Other sources are not so specific to age patterning. For instance, there does not appear to be a more specific picture of qixiong (older)- qidi (younger) homoerotic affiliation mentioned in scholarly writings (Ng, 1989:p85-6[65]; Leupp, 1995:p15).

Chinese boy prostitution may have been imported to America. As footnoted by Weiss (1974:p52)[66]: “Some police officers testified that occasionally young boys, 14 and under, were enticed into these houses of prostitution, but it was not a usual practice. Caucasian men, however, did frequent such establishments (Farwell, 1885:p103-4)[67]”.

Lastly, Ellis (1927)[68]:

“When a rich man gives a feast he sends for women to cheer the repast by music and song, and for boys to serve at table and to entertain the guests by their lively conversation. The boys have been carefully brought up for this occupation, receiving an excellent education, and their mental qualities are even more highly valued than their physical attractiveness. The women are less carefully brought up and less esteemed. After the meal the lads usually return home with a considerable fee. What further occurs the Chinese say little about. It seems that real and deep affection is often born of these relations, at first platonic, but in the end becoming physical, not a matter for great concern in the eyes of the Chinese. Morache […] gives some interesting details concerning the boy prostitutes. These are sold by their parents (sometimes stolen from them), about the age of 4, and educated, while they are also subjected to a special physical training, which includes massage of the gluteal regions to favor development, dilatation of the anus, and epilation (which is not, however, practised by Chinese women). At the same time, they are taught music, singing, drawing, and the art of poetry. The waiters at the restaurants always know where these young gentlemen are to be found when they are required to grace a rich man's feast. They are generally accompanied by a guardian, and usually nothing very serious takes place, for they know their value, and money will not always buy their expensive favors. They are very effeminate, luxuriously dressed and perfumed, and they seldom go on foot. There are, however, lower orders of such prostitutes[69]”.

Discussing the apparently low incidence of child sexual abuse, Ho and Kwok (1991)[70] argued that “[t]he Chinese pattern of childrearing from initial permissiveness to unquestioned obedience may facilitate adults using children as sexual objects”. According to Tang (2002)[71], the “suppression of sexuality in traditional Chinese culture (Goodwin & Tang, 1996) also makes it difficult for Chinese children to talk about sexual matters and articulate their sexual victimization experiences (Tang & Lee, 1999)”. “Initiated by a local feminist group in Taipei, a decade-long campaign to rescue child prostitutes has recently become successful in criminalizing patrons of child prostitutes. As a side effect, sexual abuse of children and adolescents, which has often been considered attributing to child prostitution, has recently been acknowledged as a social problem in Taiwan” (Luo, 1998)[72].

Janssen, D. F., Growing Up Sexually. VolumeI. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology

Last revised: Dec 2004