Despite still being referred to as “inflatable dolls”, sex doll technology has developed at an incredible rate. And while the silicon dolls look increasingly realistic, so too are the relationships Chinese men are having with them, treating them as “daughters”, “wives”, and even bringing them on the subway.

Zhang Fan (seen above), 36, is a Beijing stock broker who turned to sex dolls after two failed relationships. Zhang said the requirements of a romantic relationship in China, such as owning a house and having children, are too much to bear. Instead, Zhang said he prefers the pleasure of sex without the responsibility of a wife or having to raise a child.

Zhang’s doll is named Liu Ying, an actual person that Zhang once had a crush on. Zhang buys Liu Ying clothes and jewelry to wear, and says the doll has many personas like “Lady White Rose”, “Policewoman”, and “South Korean Model”.

Zhang said Liu Ying is the female version of himself, and not a doll or toy. “She is me as a female. Not some other woman,” he said.

Zhang insists there’s nothing wrong with the relationship he has with his sex doll. “Any behavior can be explained by its societal, economic, and cultural reasons. The use of a sex doll can’t provide a clear explanation (of anything). For example, the sex culture of ancient China lies beyond the understanding of this generation.”

To further his point, Zhang cites a Northern Song Dynasty idiom (梅妻鹤子) that describes a scholarly man without a family as having “a plum tree for a wife and a crane for children” as a way to describe his situation.

Zhang said he has a spiritual connection with his doll. “If you’re going to tell me that this isn’t love, I won’t believe you,” he says.

Song Bo, 29, (seen above and at top) has spent RMB 13,000 on sex dolls over the past half year. Naming one doll as “Little Butterfly”, Song treats his dolls like his daughter, taking it on the subway and to shopping malls.

Song says he was diagnosed with a tumor in his head, and won’t risk getting into a marriage or having children.

Li Chen, 58, is something of an online celebrity with the Chinese sex doll community. The Huishui, Guizhou native bought a sex doll in 2014 after divorcing his younger ex-wife 12 years ago. Li is getting married again, this time to a woman 34 years his junior. Li credits his sex doll “Xiaoxue” for the new relationship, claiming it has given him a second youth.

Li explains that being different in China will always draw criticism. “If you’re a successful person, no one will criticize you for playing with something (strange). But if you’re not, watch out, because someone might find something wrong with it.”

The post To Some Chinese Men, Sex Toys Can Become Full-Fledged Girlfriends appeared first on The Nanfang.

Not only are young adults okay with having sex at an earlier age without getting married first, they’re also okay with performing public displays of affection (PDA), something that was once an acute social taboo in China.

A survey conducted by the China National University Media Alliance polled 1,302 university students from 230 schools and found about 60 percent of respondents were in favor of public displays of affection.

Eighty percent were in favor of sweet talking and hugging in public, and 63 percent had no problem with light kissing. The students were less inclined to perform more overt examples of PDA: only 15 percent were in favor of making physical caresses, while just 9 percent were okay with making out in public.

The survey also found that a smaller sample of 115 parents were much less likely to approve of public displays of affection, the lowest being for light kissing at 20 percent. However, parents proved to be even more accepting of holding hands in public than students (98 percent over 96). Perhaps they view that as better than the alternative.

Social taboos are strong motivators of behavior in Chinese culture, but the changing times means China’s younger generation are more apt to react differently because they see themselves in a different context from their parents.

Recent graduate Zhang Ning said the social taboo over PDA still exists in China, but she isn’t as inclined to care anymore. “I get a little embarrassed about doing it. On the other hand, most people won’t see me do PDA because it takes a short time to do. Also, no one (on the street) recognizes me or knows who I am.”

However, despite the willingness of China’s younger generation to kiss like no one is looking, PDA in China still has its detractors. Diao Yuquan from Zhejiang Sci-tech University said PDA is not part of traditional Chinese behavior, but is a learned trait from Western inlfluences.

Yuan Xin, a psychological professor at Nankai University, said that although public displays of affection show that China has become a more open society, Yuan blames the phenomenon on students’ ignorance.

“Some university students don’t know the boundary between private and public life. As a university teacher, we should strengthen the way we educate students about love,” said Yuan. “By learning how to act in public places, students will be able to fundamentally respect other people and their surroundings.”

The post Showing Affection In Public? China’s Teens Say Nothing Wrong With It At All appeared first on The Nanfang.

Twenty video cameras have been set up at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in order to capture all the steamy panda-on-panda action.

Launched by China Network Television in 2013, iPanda is a streaming site that offers uninhibited voyeurs an online peak at all things panda.

As challenging as it has been to breed the pandas, researchers say 20 years of study has helped them overcome these difficulties.

At first, “only 20 percent of the pandas could have sex naturally. To motivate male pandas’ sex drive, researchers let them watch videos of other pandas mating” and fed them an aphrodisiac, said Zhang Heming, director of the panda research center.

Now, between 70 and 80 percent of the pandas can have sex naturally, he said.

And yet, it turns out the best help researchers can offer to pandas during breeding season is to leave them alone. A study conducted at the same China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda found that pandas breed under the best conditions without human interference, concluding “The future of conservation breeding will not take place in a test tube.”

All the same, the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda said yesterday that 10 out of the 26 pandas at the facility had successfully mated. Of these, six mated naturally, two had artificial insemination, while the remaining two had both.

Plans to have the remaining 16 female pandas “mate” will take place later this year.

Zhang is enthusiastic about the iPanda video streaming service and what it could mean for the appreciation of the panda. “Now each year, tens of millions of people visit the website, where they can have a 24-hour view of pandas’ lives,” Zhang said.

Here’s some clip featuring Wu Gang and Cui Cui:

The post Live Panda Sex Shows Now Being Streamed Online in China appeared first on The Nanfang.

Among the details that stand out in the survey: a majority of 20-something Chinese report they are sexually active by age 18, and married couples consider divorce after only five years of marriage.

The Peking University Social Survey Research Center, in collaboration with Chinese dating website Baihe, conducted the survey over two months and involved around 80,000 respondents in online and offline interviews from all over China.

The survey found that the results in the same category differed by demographics. While 20-something Chinese started having sex before age 20, 30-something Chinese reported that, on average, their first sexual experience occurred after the age of 22.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Beijing residents led the way in having their first sexual experience at around 21 years old, which is earlier than other city residents.

Generational differences can also be seen when it comes to experiencing a “first love”. Chinese 20-somethings reported that their first love was at age 13, while 40-somethings reported their first love was at 19.

The quickening pace of romance and sex in China is also reflected in marriages, which are getting shorter and shorter. The most dangerous time for a marriage is at the three to five year mark, when the pressures of family life dramatically increase. The report shows that these pressures are especially burdensome for wives.

It’s at this three to five year mark that couples seek out extramarital affairs. Twenty percent of all married couples in China include a cheating husband, while another 20 percent include cheating wives. If you think that ratio is a little low, that’s because there is another ten percent of couples who cheat on each other at the same time.

About 11 percent of respondents married between three and five years said they would not choose to marry the same person if given the chance to do it all again, while another 9 percent reported that, if given the choice, they would not get married at all.

The post Chinese Are Having Sex Earlier And Divorcing Sooner appeared first on The Nanfang.

But now, Campbell has unveiled a video that shows off the biggest trophy that a narcissist could capture. His video “Guy Quits Job To Travel – My Epic 16 Months of Unemployment” was released just a week ago, but has already received over 500,000 views as well as inflaming another round of outrage in the Chinese media, this time with a video that details not just his sexual exploits, but the media attention he’s been able to capture as well.

In reporting this latest video, Chinese news reports ask readers to “Strongly despise the acts of this womanizer”. Sensational pictures of Campbell with various Asian women are seen in the reports, and the media are so angered with him they don’t even mention his name.

For his part, Campbell tries to motivate viewers by saying in the video, “This is what life looks like when you quit your job and do only the things you love (or wanted to try).”

While Campbell has been throughout Asia with stops in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand, he’s also made a big impression in Hong Kong. Campbell became infamous among Hong Kongers he made a video that showed a white foreigner “stealing” an Asian woman from an Asian man.

Either for his “conquest” of Asian women or the Chinese news, you can direct your attention towards Campbell in this video:

The post Pick-Up Artist Traveling Around Asia Angers Chinese Press with “Best Of” Video appeared first on The Nanfang.

Pink to Viagra’s blue, Jin’ge, manufactured by Guanzhou Baiyunshan, is available in 30,000 drugstores in China and anticipates sales of over a billion yuan ($156 million) by 2017. In order to meet the company’s ambitious target, it has come up with an impressive sales tactic: competitive pricing. A 50 milligram Jin’ge pill costs just 48 yuan, 60 percent less than competitors; a ten pack retails for 345 yuan ($53).

Before the debut of Jin’ge, Viagra controlled more than 50 percent of China’s ED supplement market, while Cialis controlled about 34 percent. However, Pfizer’s Viagra patent in China expired in May 2014, after which Guangzhou Baiyunshan beat out 20 competitors to earn the rights from the State Food and Drug Administration to manufacture a generic equivalent.

Li Chuyuan, president of Guangzhou Baiyunshan’s parent company, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings Co Ltd., said Baiyunshan had started research and development on ED medicine that uses sildenafil, Viagra’s main ingredient, in the 1990s but had to halt its research after Viagra was patented in China in 2001.

In order to offer such low prices, while still developing a reputable product, Baiyunshan hired Nobel laureate Ferid Murad, “the father of Viagra,” for its research and development. Guangzhou Baiyunshan Deputy General Manager, Wang Wenchu, revealed plans to eventually sell Jin’ge on the international market. But even in the domestic market, non-Chinese customers are more willing to buy the drug than their Chinese counterparts.

Forty-six percent of Chinese men over 40 (about 127 million), suffer from erectile dysfunction, while only 4 percent seek treatment.

Wang hopes that Jin’ge’s competitive pricing will encourage Chinese men to overcome their reluctance to seek help. “The lower price has helped quickly expand sales channels,” said Wang.

Spreading awareness of men’s health and ED medicine is key to increasing sales among Chinese men, said drug retailer Lin Jingyan. “More Chinese men have been looking for ED medicine, which contributes a growing percentage of sales revenue to our store.”

The post Chinese Viagra Offers Cheap Alternative to Stiff Competition appeared first on The Nanfang.

This past July, 55 year-old Yang Hong arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City from Paris with her daughter, a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology. A Customs and Border Protection officer found a number of undeclared goods in the daughter’s suitcase including expensive pocketbooks, wristwatches, a fur coat, and jewelry.

Concerned that her daughter may be fined, Yang gave the officer a piece of paper with her name and phone number written on it. Yang told the officer she would pay him $10,000 and give him a luxury wristwatch if he would allow her daughter to pass through customs with the undeclared goods.

Following Yang’s offer, the officer momentarily left the room to confer with his superiors. Unbenownest to Yang, when he returned, he was equipped with a hidden recorder. The officer gave the piece of paper back to Yang, who increased the offer by adding that she would “sleep with him” as well as give him a free trip to China. Suffice it to say, the officer was not impressed, however he let Yang and her daughter go pending further investigation.

Last weekend, Yang was arrested and charged with customs fraud by U.S. Homeland Security agents after attempting to board a flight for China. She was released on $250,000 bail on Monday.

Yang’s lawyer Robert Gottleib said, “There was clearly a misunderstanding that unfortunately has resulted in an unjust arrest of a wonderful woman.”

The post Chinese Mother, Caught With Undeclared Goods at US Customs, Offers to Sleep With Officer appeared first on The Nanfang.

On November 23, Financial Times correspondent Patti Waldmeir wrote a column on how China’s new two-child policy is doomed to fail because Chinese mothers don’t want additional babies, and that the country is suffering from a “sex shortage.”

Simplified to “too many abortions, too little sex and too few sperm,” Waldmeir mused that the lack of sex among Chinese “has something to do with the fact that a large proportion of 20-somethings still live with their mother (and for that matter, their grandmothers) in cramped urban flats. Surely that’s better than the best contraceptive.”

Well, if you want to know where the line is drawn in the sand, this is it.

The People’s Daily Online responded to the Financial Times with a furious op-ed written by Jiang Bin that blasted Waldmeir for not crediting her sources and for writing “biased assumptions and groundless accusations.” Jiang slammed Waldmeir for using the terms “maybe” and “likely to be” as part of her column as well as not being “respectful to facts nor responsible for the readers”.

Jiang refuted Waldmeir’s assertion that young Chinese still live with their parents with the only fresh evidence presented in the op-ed (along with six netizen comments). Jiang writes:

We happen to have our statistics here, if Ms. Waldmeir would like to take the time to read it. Peking University Institute of Social Science Survey released a report entitled “China’s Development Report of People’s Well-being” in 2012, which shows that 75.2 percent of married couples do not live with their parents in China.

But let’s disregard that Jiang quoted a source about married Chinese, whereas Waldmeir did not make that distinction. Instead, let’s go back to Waldmeir’s original thesis that Chinese aren’t having babies in part because they’re not having sex. It’s clearly seen in the People’s Daily Online screenshot, as it is in the Financial Times’ headline: “Wanted: more people to make babies in China.” If we do this, we can see that Jiang has deviated from Waldmeir’s point in order to bolster her own argument.

Jiang asks how Waldmeir, a non-Chinese journalist from a non-Chinese country, possibly knows about the intimate details of the sex lives of Chinese white collar workers? Well, if Waldmeir reads Chinese news media, she may be able to figure it out.

Like this article from the China Daily from the end of last year, a story in which the Nanfang reported over half of all surveyed Chinese white collar respondents said they have sex less than once a month:

Or if you want something more trustworthy, how about this October 2015 news article from the People’s Daily Online upon which the Nanfang reported over 70 percent of surveyed Chinese said they are unsatisfied with their sex lives due to reasons of stress and depression:

And because they’re always up to date on such matters, here’s a 2013 news article, again from the People’s Daily Online:

It may be that all Jiang wanted to prove is that married Chinese couples don’t live with their parents, and needed to set the record straight with Waldmeir’s column. And yet, we’re still waiting for any arguments from Jiang and the People’s Daily Online that can refute Waldmeir’s claims of a Chinese “sex shortage” that is fueling a lack of pregnancies.

All the same, Jiang is able to toss in the final insult at Waldmeir by saying, “No wonder this paper has lost its legacy of being a well-known opinion field, and has been sold to Japan.”

On the upside, at least Jiang is acknowledging that the Financial Times used to be famous, as respectfully shown in Jiang’s writing by refraining from using the terms “maybe” and “likely to be.”

The post People’s Daily Slams Financial Times Column Saying Chinese People Don’t Have Sex appeared first on The Nanfang.

The announcement comes after a successful pilot program held at ten of the province’s universities and colleges this past March.

At least one condom machine will be installed at each of the 128 post-secondary schools in Zhejiang over the next year. Students will be able to get a free box of condoms by swiping their student ID card on the machine, which presumably will make their identity known. As such, it’s unclear how many will use the free condoms.

Zhejiang health and family planning official Li Danhe admitted that it wasn’t easy trying to persuade parents to go along with the plan. “Some colleges said they were concerned such a move would encourage sex and would incur opposition and complaints from students’ parents,” said Li.

Further south, the rate of HIV infection is skyrocketing among university students in Guangzhou, growing at an annual rate of 46 percent. This increase is reflected in the national rate, especially in cases involving “male-to-male” sexual transmission.

Meanwhile, China’s younger generation have shown themselves to be considerably less prudish than their parents when it comes to pre-marital sex. A Ministry of Education survey from this past June shows that some 60 percent of respondents say they approve of sex before marriage, while only 16 percent are against.

However, sex education and awareness programs in Chinese universities have faced resistance for some time now. In 2004, Peking University called off plans to hand out free condoms on World AIDS Day because school administrators feared it would encourage students to have sex.

Despite this progressive plan, educational institutions in China still don’t appear to be reforming their conservative attitudes towards sex. Recently, a Xi’an, Shaanxi college has face controversy online for forcing its female students to sign a chastity pledge to refrain from pre-marital sex, while a Jilin school was reported to ban students from public displays of affection such as feeding each other in the school cafeteria.

The post Zhejiang Universities to Hand Out Free Condoms to Students appeared first on The Nanfang.

Students made up almost four percent of all new cases last year, while they only accounted for 0.74 percent back in 2002. Three quarters of the 172 reported HIV cases among students in Guangzhou came from same-sex intercourse among males.

A study said a lack of HIV/AIDS awareness and a more open attitude towards sex has contributed to the rise in the number of HIV cases. But as China Daily reports, the Guangzhou CDC said nearly 93 percent of Guangzhou students were given HIV/AIDS prevention education in 2014.

“Since 2008, the number of HIV/AIDS cases among male college students has increased much faster than those among females… About 80 percent of newly detected cases involve sex between men,” said Wu Zunyou, head of the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention.

Before a city-wide crackdown sparked by a CCTV report that revealed rampant prostitution, Guangdong’s own Dongguan was hit with a full-blown HIV crisis. At the beginning of 2014, local media reported that as many as 2,000 of Dongguan’s sex workers had HIV, with some of them engaging in prostitution.

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