Law and sexual repression in China

Li Yinhe, the famous sociologist, sexologist, and activist for LGBT rights in the People's Republic of China claimed in an interview with Phoenix Net Culture (IFENG. COM) on December 24, 2014, that Chinese sexual repression is the highest in the world and only North Korea’s sexual repression is higher than China. It is worth mentioning that on December 12, 2014, cankaoxiaoxi.com published an article: the Chinese are the most sexually “repressed”? The article indicated that people in China watch pornography as the highest in the world and have surpassed the United States in pornography usage.

For thousands of year, Chinese culture promoted the belief that sex before marriage is unacceptable. Women should abide by “the women's morality” and maintain their loyalty to their husbands before marriage. The purpose of sex is not enjoyment, but to produce offspring and to let the husband release his sexual desires. Fortunately, with the advent of family planning policies in the 20th century, the purpose of sexual behavior has changed. The family can only have one child. So sexual behavior between a husband and wife is no longer just for childbirth but to enjoy sexual pleasure. However, in an interview, Li Yinhe, I mentioned at the first paragraph, said, “There was a national sex survey in 2004; twenty-eight percent of Chinese women between 60 and 64 years old had never experienced sexual pleasure in their lives.” she also stated that “ There are also surveys about other countries’ people. Sometimes women can’t enjoy sexual pleasure because of physical limitations or personal dislikes, but that does not exceed more than 10% of the female population.”

The key reason for feeling no pleasure from sex is probably due to long-term sexual repression based on cultural norms. Women are shamed and prevented from expressing their sexual desires. However, the law also plays an important role in shaping a woman’s perspective and behavior. The law relating to sex absorbs plenty of traditional moral theory. The law in any country reflects the cultural values of that country; the law can also shape the values of individuals within the country.

There are two typical laws in China that exemplify this. According to Article 301 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, group licentiousness is a crime based on the view that assembling a crowd to engage in sexual promiscuity reflects public contempt for state law and social morality. Specifically, it refers to a gathering of three or more people (men and/or women) engaging in sexual activity and other promiscuous activities. The activity of the participants must be voluntary. The state views such behavior as violating the public order. Those who gather for promiscuous activities shall experience criminal detention or public surveillance or imprisonment for not more than fives years.

There has been much talk of the law being repealed. Legal experts argue that there are no victims from voluntary group sex which generally takes place in private and hidden places and does not endanger public order. Why, then, should the law punish such harmless acts? There are opposing voices say that these group sex acts can’t match the traditional Chinese morality. In my opinion, law is the lowest standard of morality. We can require the public to respect the law and use the standard of law. But we can not ask the public to act following all the traditional morality whatever it is correct or decadent. Because it is difficult to distinguish whether the standard of traditional morality is appropriate in this new era. If we use morality as the bottom line of law, then morality will kidnap all the people to comply with the strictest “law” which may cause the mess. Also, freedom will become nonsense.

The goal in punishing group licentiousness is to curb sexual openness and freedom. The present Chinese law doesn’t accept sexual openness in its citizens and uses stringent criminal laws to imprison people for what the state considers immoral and unlawful behavior. Criminal laws serve to warn people that sex can only take place between two people, a husband and wife, in private. Sex intercourse should occur in a “proper way”. Citizens can't follow their own inclinations. Sex is a private act, but the law wants to control this kind of behavior in a way that completely violates the individual's privacy and sexual freedom. It is unreasonable to treat sexual acts in private as sins when they are done freely and do not harm others.

Then people began to accept that sex was not completely free. Once again the ancient tradition came to mind that sex was not something to be played with, but rather a tool for procreation within rules and regulations. Even if you want to enjoy it, be careful and sneaky.

Another law that promotes the sexual repression of citizens is the People's Republic of China criminal law, Article 363 (amended in 2015)：

Whoever for the purpose of making profits, produces, duplicates, publishes, sells or disseminates pornographic articles for profit shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of no more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance and shall also be fined. If the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of no less than three years but no more than 10 years and shall also be fined; If the circumstances are especially serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years or fixed-term imprisonment, and shall also be fined or have his property confiscated.

Criminal law, Article 364, claims that whoever disseminates pornographic books, periodicals, films, audio-visual materials, pictures or other pornographic materials, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than two years, criminal detention or public surveillance.

Whether making a profit or not, it is a crime to disseminate obscene material. According to the law, the spread of obscene materials in the society will harm the physical and mental health of the Chinese people, especially teenagers, and also easily induce illegal and criminal activities. From the criminal law perspective, cracking down on the spread of obscene articles in society according to law is critical to maintaining public security, protecting people's physical and mental health and promoting spiritual civilization.

When I asked my close male friends, all of them have seen pornographic movies. When I asked my female friends, almost half of them have seen pornographic movies. Since the law wants to combat the spread of obscene materials, why does the law can tolerate everyone watching porn at home? There is an old saying in China that sex and food are life. In other words, the two most important things in life are eating and having sex. The demand for porn is a normal human physiological desire. It is oppressive and against human nature to prohibit people from satisfying their sexual and physical needs.

If the law wants to prohibit the impact of such films on minors, it can learn from the United States to create a film classification system and child protection mode for television. Blindly banning the spread and production of pornographic films will only result in the boom of the pornographic materials market. In the present Chinese system, protecting teenagers from porn can’t be achieved. Worse yet, people can make more money from the dissemination of pornography because it is illegal.

The booming porn market in China is inseparable from sexual repression. Chinese students do not receive sex education as children and teenagers. Teachers keep silent on the topic of sexual behavior and sexual health. Normal minors are full of curiosity and desire as their bodies develop and change. So boys and many girls under the age of 18 have been exposed to porn and they acquire their sexual knowledge and sexual behavior from pornography. Porn is the sex education for Chinese boys. However, girls are more confused about sex because they have no resource to understand sex and sexual behavior. Teachers do not carry out positive sex education in school and parents are too shy to speak to their children about sexual knowledge. Pornography has become the key way for minors to acquire sexual knowledge before they experience sex.

However, pornographic materials are prohibited by law. Minors and adults must close the curtains and watch pornography secretly and quietly. As a result, the public believes that pornography is bad and harmful. More importantly, people are influenced by the anti-pornography laws. Since pornography isn’t supposed to be seen and masturbation is regarded as depraved thing, sexual behavior seems even more shameful. People suppress their desires because the law tells us that it is against the law to spread pornography to help people enjoy sex. Sex, then, should not be treated as a natural pleasure to be enjoyed.

Chinese minors and adults, generation after generation, grow up in this sexually confused and repressive environment. When they first come into contact with sexual behavior, they will doubt themselves: should I feel happy? Should I be ashamed? Morality and law tell me that I should not enjoy sex. Sexual repression is sprouting and developing in China.

The extraordinary influence of laws on the public is so great that legislators should be extremely careful to find ways to deal with the problem since the current laws force people to accept conflicted and negative values towards sex. Laws are meant to protect people's relative freedom, not to limit their innate needs.
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