Chinese City Is Chilly to a Sex Theme Park

By EDWARD WONG

Published: May 18, 2009

BEIJING — Sex in China has a long and varied history, as evidenced by accounts of carnal excess in “The Plum in the Golden Vase,” a Ming-era classic, and more recent tales of Mao’s insatiable appetite.

But an attempt to open the first sex theme park in China was quashed by local officials over the weekend, well before construction was completed.

Officials in the sprawling city of Chongqing, where Love Land was being built, recently became incensed over the risqué nature of the park and ordered its destruction, according to a report published Sunday in the Chongqing Evening News, a state-run newspaper. Angry Internet postings about the park had been proliferating, and China Daily, the official English-language newspaper, published an article about the park last Friday.

Photographs on the Internet showed workers on Saturday pulling down a pair of white plastic legs and hips that appear to be the bottom half of a giant female mannequin towering over the park entrance. The mannequin is wearing a red G-string.

The park manager, Lu Xiaoqing, had planned to have on hand naked human sculptures, giant models of genitals, sex technique “workshops” and a photography exhibition about the history of sex, according to China Daily. The displays would have included lessons on safe sex and the proper use of condoms.

Mr. Lu told China Daily that the park was being built “for the good of the public.” Love Land would be useful for sex education, he said, and help adults “enjoy a harmonious sex life.”

He added, “Sex is a taboo subject in China, but people really need to have more access to information about it.”

Mr. Lu was building the park in an entertainment zone of Chongqing near the Yangtze River. Chongqing, a booming city built on hills on either side of the Yangtze, once served as the wartime capital of the Kuomintang government. Like other fast-growing cities in China, it has a reputation among some people for loose moral standards.

Officials could not be reached for comment late Monday afternoon.

Chinese approach sex with an attitude that seems alternately more prudish and more open than that of Westerners.

The government, for example, regularly censors movies and other works of art that are deemed to have overly graphic depictions of sex. (“The Plum in the Golden Vase” was banned by imperial decree.) Parents rarely talk to their children about sex.

On the other hand, prostitution, while officially illegal, is practiced openly, with full-service “massage parlors” and “hair salons” found everywhere. Officials and businessmen have a propensity to take and support a mistress as a sign of success in their careers.

Huang Yuanxi contributed research.