This morning, I came across the shocking news of how China intends to open its first sex theme park called LOVE LAND in Chongqing. Although it aims to address taboo and improve sex education, many residents see it as vulgar and inappropriate. I would too!
Apparently, the theme park was inspired by South Korea's popular sex theme park in Jeju.
The park manager, Lu Xiaoqing, says that Love Land, due to open in October, will improve sex education and help adults enjoy a harmonious sex life.
To read details of this shocking news, please CLICK HERE for the report in Guardian.
To me, it is apparent that even though China remains repressed politically, the citizens are undergoing a sweeping liberation in their sexual behavior.
TIME magazine reported:
The past decade of economic and social reform spawned a new permissiveness that was not suppressed by the soldiers sent to occupy Tiananmen Square. For the first time, Chinese sociologists have conducted extensive surveys to document the spread of the sexual revolution in the world's most populous nation. Their main conclusions: like most other populations, the Chinese are having more sex outside marriage and are becoming increasingly adventurous in the ways they make love.Obviously, modernization has created many social problems such as that mentioned above. As a sociologist, I can see the troubling trend of promiscuity as advocated in the culture of pornography, pop idols, modern lifestyles, the increasing importance of the role and influence of the internet over the lives of individuals. There seems to be a breakdown of the family unit and the moral fabric of many nations is being torn slowly but surely. The following excerpt gives more evidence that this is happening at quite an alarming rate, and that it is not a problem faced by western countries alone.
By far the largest study is the Shanghai Sex Sociological Research Center's National Sex Civilization Survey. Using 500 volunteer social workers, the center obtained responses from 23,000 people in 15 provinces to a 240-question survey. The project is the Chinese equivalent of Alfred Kinsey's landmark studies of sexual behavior in the U.S. Liu Dalin, the study's director and China's best-known sexologist, agreed to discuss his findings with TIME before they are published. Results from a smaller survey of 1,279 men and women in 41 cities, conducted by sociologist Pan Suiming of the People's University of China, were recently presented at a World Health Organization conference.Extracted from HERE.
The most striking trend found in Liu's study is the deterioration of the strong tie between sex and marriage. In the past, young girls were forced into arranged marriages shortly after puberty. Now women are forbidden by law, largely as a means of population control, to marry before the age of 20, and men cannot take a bride until they are at least 22. But relatively few are waiting that long to have sex. Fully 86% of those who answered Liu's survey said they approved of premarital sex. Such liberal attitudes often persist after marriage as well. A surprising 69% of the people surveyed saw nothing wrong with extramarital affairs.
Predictably, out-of-wedlock pregnancies are on the rise. In response, the government has taken a practical, if not exactly approving, stance toward the problem. Only a few years ago, unmarried pregnant women were fired from their jobs and forced to have publicized abortions. Now they are allowed to get abortions confidentially.
I do not mean to sound like a prude but it is most worrying when we see such trends and I worry especially for the future generation. What will happen to the institution of the family? How then can values, culture, ethics, morals and good teaching be passed down to children in the process of socialization when almost all around from the media to wider society, there is a call in the opposite direction?
Many youth are desensitized to sex.And why so? It is because of such disturbing trends and influences that seem to give a license for one to be loose and carefree. It is imperative that parents teach their children the sanctity of marriage and family and how we cannot let such negative influences overtake our sense of morality and honor. Worse still would be the horrifying fact that in a country where the government exercised a Machiavellian hand over the lives of its citizens in the past, to the extent of dictating the type of clothes they should wear and hairstyles they could follow, promiscuity seems to be thriving while the economy is not. Another indirect cause would be the alarming rate of secularization, whereby society no longer emphasizes the importance of religion in the lives of its members. In this way, there is no accountability and anything goes. But is it all a bed of roses?
Not really! China is only beginning to discover the downside of the sexual revolution. AIDS infections, though still much rarer than in the U.S., are spreading rapidly, as are other sexually transmitted diseases. Along with promiscuity, prostitution is on the increase. By pretending such problems do not exist, the government perpetuates misinformation and ignorance.
Personally, I hope that such ridiculous theme park will not be allowed to operate in ANY part of the world! It is akin to a public glorification of sex! The time has come for people to return to their roots and to uphold values, morals and observe decorum. Sad, very sad indeed.
