Li Yinhe talks about sex

Chapter 5 "All evils are headed by adultery" and sexual rights

For a long time, due to the influence of the atmosphere of moral purity that reached an absurd level during the Cultural Revolution, China has been in a social atmosphere of "talking about sex."

People often ask me: Why study sex?At first I didn't care, people asked a lot, and I had to ask myself: Why do I want to study sex?

The "culprit" is the environment and social atmosphere in which I grew up.I belong to the generation that was born in the 50s, entered puberty in the 60s, and talked about marriage in the 70s.In the past 30 years, "sex" has been a monster in China.In all public places it is never present; but in all secret places it is omnipresent.In Wang Xiaobo's words, the society at that time had a "yang" side and a "yin" side.People have one face on the "yang" side and another face on the "yin" side; they speak one kind of language on "yang" occasions and another kind of speech on "yin" occasions.And the topic of "sex" definitely belongs to the world of "yin".During those 30 years, because sex was on the dark side of society, the concept of sex in the whole society was quite distorted and perverted.Drinking inside the door, persuading others outside; full of benevolence and morality, full of male thieves and female prostitutes; or naive, pure, and shy to the point of childishness.This was typical of people at the time when it came to sexuality.Until now, these organs of the human body have been given a meaning, value, and importance far different from those of the brain, heart, hands, and feet.Everything related to sex should be specially guarded, as if it is the source of all evils (all evils are headed by adultery).How can this abnormal phenomenon not arouse my curiosity?To put it bluntly, I just want to figure out why we Chinese are so distorted, perverted, and repressed when it comes to sex.

For example, doing sex research is a bit like the underground work of revolutionaries back then, with a sense of adventure and challenge; a sense of naughty deviance and foul;This is the same reason that the theme of "sex" is particularly favored by Chinese contemporary avant-garde artists.I remember once Zhang Yuan (pioneering film director, director of China’s first gay-themed film "East Palace and West Palace", screenwriter Wang Xiaobo) asked me: "Why are you interested in sex?" I thought for a long time and said this sentence: "I think people who have sex are very authentic (not prudish)." Judging from his expression, he seems to agree with this.

Chinese people rarely think that in the field of sex, many things are related to people's basic rights, such as can people masturbate?Can women initiate sexual requests?Can gay couples get married?Can bdsm lovers organize their own club?Can people legally purchase and enjoy sexual texts, images and video products?Can a person sell his body?Can a person participate in sexual activities with more than three people? ...

Chinese culture has always emphasized obligations and neglected rights.People are used to sacrificing their rights in order to fulfill their duties.In our culture, individual rights are often suppressed in the name of society and the state.When talking about the European Middle Ages, Fromm said: At that time, the "individual" had not yet been formed.In contemporary China, people are still suppressing sexual expression in the name of society, country and culture, precisely because the "individual" has not yet formed here.Therefore, duty is good, right is bad; duty is virtue, right is evil; duty is rewarded, right is degraded.If contemporary Chinese people already have some requirements for personal rights such as economics, politics, and personal safety, then they have no concept of what rights individuals can have in the field of sexuality.When it comes to asserting individual sexual rights, people are still far from being justified, on the contrary, they are very guilty.

For a long time, due to the influence of the atmosphere of moral purity that reached an absurd level during the Cultural Revolution, China has been in a social atmosphere of "talking about sex."Moral conservatives have never given up the goal of purifying social morality and making it as close to asceticism as possible.They conform to (or take advantage of) the conservative moral concepts of some people in the society and suppress the rights of other people. However, according to the provisions of the Constitution on freedom of speech and freedom of the press, the latter also have the legal right to express their moral concepts.Strictly speaking, it is an unconstitutional act to suppress the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press of the latter by means of administrative punishment, and to use the moral standards of some people in society to suppress the freedom of speech of others.

After some people in China entered the modern urban life, individualism gradually gained its due status, and it gradually became different from selfishness and egoism in people's minds.People are more and more aware of their rights, and some "quasi-groups" have gradually formed into "interest groups" (Dahrendorf). A person's general rights and the special rights of being a member of an interest group.In this struggle, the rights related to sex are entering the Chinese people's field of vision.

(End of this chapter)