# I pit the Chinese ethos re sex **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 8, 2005, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424 "2005-06-08T07:58:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![caveman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caveman/32/7242_2.png) [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/21 "2005-06-08T17:26:40Z")
Where does such east Asian prudery come from? Here in the West, we have Christianity to wag a finger at us, and in the Mideast they have Islam, to cut offending fingers off. Do these cultures beleive in “sin” as we conceive it? Why not enjoy hard-core action if you’re not afraid of going to Hell for it, or even beleive in Hell in the first place? Does Bhuddism, ancestor veneration, or whatever place sanctions on carnal pleasure? Given that some of thse cultures have holy shrines to genitals, WTF? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/22 "2005-06-08T17:43:23Z")
> [@mr bus guy](#): > > Koreans got genitals? Well, when Kim Jong Il calls Dick Cheney a bloodthirsty beast, it’s a pretty good indicator that HE’s got some stones. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/23 "2005-06-08T18:01:00Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#): > > I kinda doubt that. Not just because I’d wager that Japanese porn isn’t all that popular stateside… Personally, I’d put my money on oral sex rather than Japanese culture as an influence. :dubious: Speaking from stateside, I’d say Japanese porn does indeed crop up quite a bit over here. Quite a bit. And while I wouldn’t say it was a cause, I’d say it was one of the influences. Or perhaps, inspirations. And I’d like to think oral sex was an inspiration but then you’d think the guys who wanted oral sex would return the favour :). ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/24 "2005-06-08T18:12:59Z")
> [@betenoir](#): > > Speaking from stateside, I’d say Japanese porn does indeed crop up quite a bit over here. Quite a bit. ~shrugs~ I’ve never really seen much, even while living in Gotham and visiting te seedy porn mecas by Port Authority Bus terminal. Same deal here in Austin TX. Maybe I’ve just been missing that asian porn? > [@betenoir](#): > > And while I wouldn’t say it was a cause, I’d say it was one of the influences. Meebe… all the Japanese porn I’ve ever seen is just, well, boring. > [@betenoir](#): > > And I’d like to think oral sex was an inspiration but then you’d think the guys who wanted oral sex would return the favour :). Well… there are different mechanics involved. I could link to a cite but I’d face banning 😃 Besides, there are guys whose partners enjoy them clean shaven and who oblige. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/25 "2005-06-08T18:15:14Z")
> [@caveman](#): > > Where does such east Asian prudery come from? Here in the West, we have Christianity to wag a finger at us, and in the Mideast they have Islam, to cut offending fingers off. Do these cultures beleive in “sin” as we conceive it? Why not enjoy hard-core action if you’re not afraid of going to Hell for it, or even beleive in Hell in the first place? Does Bhuddism, ancestor veneration, or whatever place sanctions on carnal pleasure? Given that some of thse cultures have holy shrines to genitals, WTF? Well…speaking as an agnostic…I don’t think it’s all about religion. Sex is a difficult thing. Scary. Weird. And on top of that certain sex acts will result in other human beings. Therefor most societies, beyond their religious philosophy, will put restrictions on sex. In the case of Christianty, the idea is, God doesn’t have sexuality , be more like him. In the case of many other religions it’s hey, your not a god. Don’t think you get the sexual freedom they do. It’s a sociatal thing. Apart for a religious thing. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/26 "2005-06-08T18:16:44Z")
> [@betenoir](#): > > Sex is a difficult thing. Scary. Weird. That’s why God invented safewords 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/27 "2005-06-08T18:33:55Z")
And e-z release restraints. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/28 "2005-06-08T18:51:53Z")
First thing I thought when I read the OP was: “How American of them.” They’d get along fine with the Republicans on this matter. Shame the other issues keep China from being our best buddy. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/29 "2005-06-08T19:24:19Z")
> [@betenoir](#): > > It’s a sociatal thing. Apart for a religious thing. Also, it’s a manners thing, apart from being a morals thing. All societies place restrictions on sex, and they also place restrictions on what’s appropriate to do in public, what’s appropriate to show on TV, etc. F’rinstance, if you’re having a loud orgasm (real or fake) in the middle of a crowded restaurant, you’re offending against manners, not morals. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/30 "2005-06-08T19:39:09Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Where \*do \* HK’ers go to fuck? Hotels? They’ve got “underground” brothels which are actually on the third or fourth floor of many apartment buildings. It’s kinda weird to be walking about Kowloon, knowing that you can get a Coca-Cola and a bag of chips at a street-level 7-11, or head upstairs for a little horizontal hula. They’re not that hard to find, either… ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/31 "2005-06-08T21:39:23Z")
I heard that same thing. A friend of the Bus Kid was just in HK for a 6 month study program, and said she knew where all the brothels were in her neighborhood before she found a good curry place. Said you didn’t have to even look for them, whereas a good curry place was everyone’s best kept secret. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/32 "2005-06-09T00:58:13Z")
Even the way that Meg Ryan had her salad served was certainly sexually suggestive and should have been censored. Reiner managed to sneak that one through. _Lettuce alone without dressing_…very clever, you Commie! I haven’t finished listening to the film backwards yet. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/33 "2005-06-09T02:56:31Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > If you’re having a loud orgasm (real or fake) in the middle of a crowded restaurant, you’re offending against manners, not morals. But in a film?! I have so many theories about HK sexual attitudes and sexuality that I hardly know where to start. First off, you need to distinguish between Mainland China and HK to some extent. It is generally felt that HK is more repressed about sex, sensuality and sexuality than Taiwan, Singapore and the Mainland. There is very much a Hello-Kittyish attitude to life among women here. So much is sentimentalised, plain fake, in fact. Also, mothers put extraordinary (by our standards) pressure on their girls not to be sensual. Nary a hint of nipple must be perceivable, let alone visible. Padded bras are the thing to be in here for a quick buck. Also, mothers generally don’t talk to their girls about menstruating until when it actually happens, and even then it’s the bare mimimum and very pragmatic (nothing much about the developmental, emotive, affective aspects of this enormous and beautiful change). To me, HK women: many are pretty, some are beautiful, but precious few are attractive. And I’de wish the pretty ones would quit pouting the whole time. Don;t they realise the deep lines that they’re storing up for their foreheads in the not to distant future? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/34 "2005-06-09T03:45:24Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Well, when Kim Jong Il calls Dick Cheney a bloodthirsty beast, it’s a pretty good indicator that HE’s got some stones. Feh! Ya don’t need stones when ya got The Bomb. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/35 "2005-06-09T12:52:30Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > They’ve got “underground” brothels which are actually on the third or fourth floor of many apartment buildings. You’ve “heard” about them, too, huh? 🙂 Actually, I was wondering about actual couples who, ah, need some relief - where can they get any privacy for themselves? Just ask the rest of the family to leave the flat for an hour or so? > [@](#): > > It’s kinda weird to be walking about Kowloon, knowing that you can get a Coca-Cola and a bag of chips at a street-level 7-11, or head upstairs for a little horizontal hula. It’s kinda weird to be strolling down Nathan Road and thinking that, but for the characters on the signs, it could be Fifth Avenue or Oxford Street. Great view across the harbor from the museum, though. ---
**Author:** ![marky33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@marky33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marky33)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/36 "2005-06-09T13:34:55Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#): > > ~shrugs~ > Meebe… all the Japanese porn I’ve ever seen is just, well, boring. The Japanese porn I’ve seen has been very boring. Also very violent. Rapes are common and its rare to see (in my very limited experience, obviously) any girl who looks like she’s enjoying it. Yet the genitals are pixelled out!!! Violent rape = good, the beauty of human anatomy = bad. What’s that saying, exactly? Odd. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/37 "2005-06-09T16:40:31Z")
> [@caveman](#): > > Where does such east Asian prudery come from? Here in the West, we have Christianity to wag a finger at us, and in the Mideast they have Islam, to cut offending fingers off. Do these cultures beleive in “sin” as we conceive it? Why not enjoy hard-core action if you’re not afraid of going to Hell for it, or even beleive in Hell in the first place? Does Bhuddism, ancestor veneration, or whatever place sanctions on carnal pleasure? Given that some of thse cultures have holy shrines to genitals, WTF? Not all of Asia is that prude. Japanese are prudes about some things and very non-chalant about others. In the case of HK, I’m guessing Victorian England was one of the chief influences. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/38 "2005-06-09T16:54:33Z")
> [@caveman](#): > > Given that some of thse cultures have holy shrines to genitals, WTF? :o Uh, yeah, that’d be us. (Hinduism) Do you know, in ancient times in India, women were not only allowed to choose their own husband, it was **their god-given right**? And if their families chose a different husband for them it was their right to flee the wedding or choose the man they wished. In the \*Mahabharat \* when Rukmini’s father & brother try to force her to wed Shishupal, she writes a letter to Sri Krishna, who has taken form on earth, to save her from her impending nuptials. She has fallen in love with Krishna, she says. Sri Krishna, _the godhead himself_, comes and takes her away and weds her! \*\*The god himself! \*\* And now women have no rights, and sex is considered highly taboo mainly because we don’t want our daughters “spoiled”. Men kill themselves and their daughters for sex out of wedlock. Unwed pregnancy can not only ruin you & your reputation, but your whole family, as it did mine when my mother had me out of wedlock. **My aunts’ engagement was broken because I was born out of wedlock**. Sex is almost criminal. In this era of child brides (while it has gotten better this problem is still prevalant) sex on TV is the least of our problems. I hate to sound like an ultra-feminist, but it all comes from the repression of females. The more we want our females to be “pure” the more sex gets removed from society and the less important it becomes, until it starts going in the other direction: where sex is a bad thing and no longer retains any beauty. /end rant ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/39 "2005-06-09T17:04:35Z")
> [@](#): > > F’rinstance, if you’re having a loud orgasm (real or fake) in the middle of a crowded restaurant, you’re offending against manners, not morals. I’d love to read the Miss Manners ruling on this. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424/40 "2005-06-09T17:14:11Z")
> [@marky33](#): > > The Japanese porn I’ve seen \ Yet the genitals are pixelled out!!! > Violent rape = good, the beauty of human anatomy = bad. What’s that saying, exactly? > Odd. Blame Canada! :smack: I mean, America. To be specific, not the laws, but the influence of [Douglas MacArthur](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_MacArthur). Prior to his dictatorship of Japan, you could see woodblocks of similar situations. While MacArthur did pass anti-censorship laws, the political enviroment led to a reluctance to depict pubic hair. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-chinese-ethos-re-sex/307424.md?page=3)