China Launches Campaign to Break Sex Taboos

Its organizers hope a new sex education campaign, "The sunshine project to care for gender health," will help break the taboos that make sexual matters "painful topics" for many Chinese.

The Health Ministry reports that while gonorrhea cases were down last year, the nation saw a one-fifth rise in syphilis, with 257,474 cases reported. China's 2007 estimate of 700,000 HIV cases is believed to be well below the true figure. Just 7 percent of women and 8 percent of men say they seek immediate medical help for sexual problems, and more than one-third say they never seek such help.

"These numbers are shocking," said Xia Enlan, head of the obstetrics and gynecology department at the Capital University of Sciences Fuxing Hospital. Government campaigns to promote condom use notwithstanding, Xia said "people are not very open" to discussions regarding sex, a problem she blamed on "the influence of feudalistic thinking."

"The numbers who get medical attention for sexual problems are extremely small," Xia said. "This delays treatment for some very serious diseases."

The new campaign's "image ambassadors" will be Hong Kong star Yvonne Yung and her husband Will Liu. The outreach will include posters, competitions, and an international sex toy fair in Beijing.

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