The sexologist Pan Hai has called for one of the idyllic islands off Zhuhai–Miao Wan Island–to be turned into a nude island. The blog post, written on July 15, is titled 中国应有裸泳海滩 (China ought to have a nude beach) and lays out some of Pan’s reasons he believes it’s about time for China’s own nude beach. As you might expect from a sexologist, he decries China’s puritanical sex culture, which he traces back to the Tang dynasty. What’s more interesting is what he says the ‘class structure’ behind sexual relations in China today–that is to say, sex can be openly bought, sold, and enjoyed by high officials–including Mao himself–but to do so, while preaching sexual prudishness to the masses, is nothing less than hypocrisy:
尽管统治者（包括我们的伟大领袖毛主席）自己从不禁欲，但他们却严格地限制老百姓的性欲。结果，整个中国社会，千百年来便形成了对于性的“二元化态度”或称“双重标准”。即：统治者可以荒淫无度，可以糜烂奢侈，而普罗大众则稍有“出格”，便会遭受道德、舆论甚至国家机器的制裁。
不是么？贪官污吏使用公款或者借用贿资包养情人（长期并多个），非但不受惩处，反而成为权势者的荣耀；小小百姓花一点儿小钱找“小姐”一乐，却时时受到专政机关的威胁，轻则罚款，重者拘禁——同样性质的男欢女爱，对于不同的国人竟有如此不同的“待遇”。这不仅深刻反映了当代中国“性道德”的虚伪，更反映了中国民主政治建设的一大或缺——缺乏实事求是的态度、缺乏一视同仁的公正！
Specifically, Pan mentions that while corrupt officials use their ill-gotten gains to keep several lovers, the little guy on the street trying to get a little action with a xiaojie gets fined and punished. Pan goes on to rail against that the development of Chinese sexual culture has been all but neglected, and what needs to be done to keep this from further slipping into abeyance is to make sure that “sexual development” get incorporated into official policy and pronouncements, so that people understand they have “sexual rights” and ought to strive to build “Socialist sexual culture with Chinese characteristics”* :
因此，当“以人为本”的理念连续写进最近几次党代会的报告之后，人们有理由要求执政者，重新审视自己的性观念，深刻认识人民群众的性权利，重新制定与性相关的政策法规，把“性文明”与精神文明、物质文明一起，列为人类文明的三大建设领域，与“经济、政治、文化、社会、生态”等五大目标一起，列为“建设小康社会”的共同要求，积极而又认真地打造“中国特色的社会主义性文明”，从而使十七大报告所讲的“科学发展观”，真正能够实现“以人为本”，真正能够实现“全面协调可持续”，真正能够实现“统筹兼顾”——既兼顾资源保护，又兼顾经济增长，更兼顾人的全面自由发展。所以，建设健康型的裸泳海滩，应该没有什么难以逾越的障碍。
Now what makes this island so special? Well, located some forty nautical miles or more from Zhuhai, these little islands are fairly isolated; only a few fisherman families live there. The beaches can be easily isolated so that you can limit the nudity and not be afraid that this strange habit will spread to the point that everyone feels obliged to walk around in their birthday suit.
Of course, there are plenty of priggish people that are opposed to this idea. Some of those who have criticized Pan object to his use of “linking up with the world” (与国际接轨）: just because the French and a whole bunch of other nations have nude beaches doesn’t mean that the Chinese have to in order to prove that they are on the same level. The writer linked to above thinks that the whole idea of sexologist is crazy, and to even make such suggestions is to defile five thousand years of Chinese history and culture. “What is a sexologist anyway? Shouldn’t they be trying to heal infertility?” the writer asks.
中华五千年的文明就这样被糟蹋，被诋毁，中华优秀的传统与作风被亵渎，这专家安的什么心？研究什么“性学”，你怎么不去治疗男女不孕？说什么裸体活动，疯子专家一派胡言。
Personally, I don’t know much about Pan Hai, but he’s definitely been a prolific writer/researcher on all matters sex, so might be worth reading if that’s your thing.
The above picture is from an internet survey on the issue of nude beaches in China. In case you were wondering, I am pro-nude beach, and after I submitted my vote these were the survey results that I received. I don’t know if they are accurate, real-time stats, but in any case, you can see that there is still a healthy margin by which the pro-nude beachers lead the anti-nude beachers.
I have to admit that my interest in this island is piqued: if it really is the Maldives of China, and has been relatively unspoilt by the Midas touch of Chinese tourist development, then I hope to go there before that all changes. The idea of going to a tiny island where there are few people has always appealed to my escapist tendency, but I had never considered anywhere within Chinese borders when fleshing out that fantasy.
*what a fucking mouthful
a shameful waste of madhouse time 