Sex and The State: The Impact of State Policy on Sexual Expression in China

Abstract

China’s Cultural Revolution (1966—1976) was a time of strict sexual repression wherein the state, led by Mao Zedong, made efforts both explicitly and implicitly to construct a largely asexual nation. However, in the forty years following the Cultural Revolution, open expression of sexuality has become far more acceptable in Chinese society; a monumental shift often referred to as China’s “sexual revolution.” This paper explores the ways in which political attitudes under Mao’s China, as well as those of the post-Mao era, shaped notions of sexuality in the Chinese populace during each respective period.

By highlighting the ideological shift in the China’s political administration from repressive socialism to tolerant free-market economy, I argue that there is a causal relationship between governance, economy and the sexual revolution. I anchor my argument by analyzing three key issues which prompted various responses from the Chinese state. I begin by analyzing the reason for the disappearance of the term aiqing, or ‘romantic love’ during the Cultural Revolution, and its resurgence in the post-Mao era. I then shift my focus to the differing responses of each political era to the population’s consumption of erotic texts. Finally, I compare methods of state-implemented population control under Mao to the methods of population control during the Post-Mao era.