China sex museum mobbed

[emad]

From BBC News:

An exhibition of sex-related art in Beijing has been forced to close because it has proved too popular. The show featured works of art from the past 2,000 years. According to the Chinese newspaper Beijing Youth Daily, chaotic scenes ensued after 200 people crowded into a small exhibition room designed to hold half that number. Security personnel had to watch helplessly as one of the glass panes of the exhibits was smashed, the paper said. The organisers then decided to shut the exhibition, although it had been scheduled to last a week. Many of the objects on show had taken years to collect by the deputy head of Beijing Sexual Health Research Association, Ma Shaonian, according to the paper.

A sex museum in Shanghai has had a very different reception. China's Xinhua news agency reported earlier this month that Liu Dalin was being forced to shut his Ancient Chinese Sex Culture Museum because it receives an average of only 30 visitors a day, way below the minimum needed to pay its overheads.

Local authorities in a city labelled in colonial times as the "Whore of the Orient" are reported to have hindered Mr Dalin's attempts to publicise his museum. It will move early next year to a Qing Dynasty women's school in Tongli, a town in neighbouring Jiangsu province. Tongli is a popular cultural tourist spot and Mr Dalin hopes his 3,700 pieces will attract more visitors there.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3223501.stm

[On the Road]

1. It's Charming

Mainland China is a society that can still get worked up about sex.

The US has become so jaded these days, like Weimar Germany or Durrell's Egypt. The moralists over here have got to start doing a better job of censorship and banning things to make it exciting again.