Putting a Red Ribbon All Around China by The Dinah Project - Blog 5:00 pm / 11 November 2007
Well done, Chairman Hu. You’ve noticed that while you’re frantically supplying the world with sexual playthings and safe-wear, you might actually have some need for it in your own back yard.
Like so many other countries that needed scary facts to come to their senses, China had rejected the notion that sex is something that it had to face. It didn’t want to deal with sex with the same pragmatism as it did with Mac Donald’s (which has now taken over every other corner in its bustling cities, at least those that haven’t been overrun by Starbucks).
So while Chinese products were filling up our sex stores and pharmacies, they have been suspiciously sparse in their own homeland. Truthfully, the demand for condoms has been limited because there’s been very little sex education promoting the concept of safe sex. This is because the Communist Party, the same fellas who decided that there was no need for religion or free expression, decided that sex education would encourage promiscuity, and so they saved themselves the effort.
But as HIV continues to grow at a rate of 50,000 new cases a year, and experts cannot carry on pretending it only comes from foreigners and bad blood banks; something is changing in the state of China, and change is wearing latex, or so it shall if the new campaign goes as planned.
This past week, for the first time ever, condom ads appeared on Chinese TV. Over a quarter of a century after AIDS first appeared, the men in mandarin collars who call the shots have ended the embargo on sex education disclosure for the biggest population on earth. I can only assume that some reality grabbed someone in office by the proverbial balls, because condoms appeared across the country, and they appeared as part of a massive campaign, endorsed by movie star Jackie Chan and other influential faces.
It has taken them long enough to wake up to the facts of life, but we must give credit where it is due: once they do it, they do it big. Hundreds of millions of Chinese – young and adult - will have condom show and tell, in the privacy of their homes.
Like so many other countries that needed scary facts to come to their senses, China had rejected the notion that sex is something that it had to face. It didn’t want to deal with sex with the same pragmatism as it did with Mac Donald’s (which has now taken over every other corner in its bustling cities, at least those that haven’t been overrun by Starbucks).
So while Chinese products were filling up our sex stores and pharmacies, they have been suspiciously sparse in their own homeland. Truthfully, the demand for condoms has been limited because there’s been very little sex education promoting the concept of safe sex. This is because the Communist Party, the same fellas who decided that there was no need for religion or free expression, decided that sex education would encourage promiscuity, and so they saved themselves the effort.
But as HIV continues to grow at a rate of 50,000 new cases a year, and experts cannot carry on pretending it only comes from foreigners and bad blood banks; something is changing in the state of China, and change is wearing latex, or so it shall if the new campaign goes as planned.
This past week, for the first time ever, condom ads appeared on Chinese TV. Over a quarter of a century after AIDS first appeared, the men in mandarin collars who call the shots have ended the embargo on sex education disclosure for the biggest population on earth. I can only assume that some reality grabbed someone in office by the proverbial balls, because condoms appeared across the country, and they appeared as part of a massive campaign, endorsed by movie star Jackie Chan and other influential faces.
It has taken them long enough to wake up to the facts of life, but we must give credit where it is due: once they do it, they do it big. Hundreds of millions of Chinese – young and adult - will have condom show and tell, in the privacy of their homes.
