Open talk of sex is a radical turnabout for China. After the communists took power in 1949, they suppressed overt sexuality, reviling it as a plaything of the idle, oppressive rich. But two decades of economic reform have brought a relaxation. Laws against homosexuality and sex outside marriage are less stringently enforced. In bigger cities, unmarried couples live together openly.
Prostitution is common.
Radio talk shows discuss marital sex lives, while telephone hotlines serve gays and lesbians. Educational books on sex are for sale, though explicit materials are banned, including imperial-era Chinese writings hailed elsewhere as classic erotic literature. Liu started collecting sex artifacts in 1989, three years before he retired from Shanghai University. His trove spans 6,000 years, from fertility idols in jade and ivory to humorous sex toys and statues of mating horses, buffalo and pigs. Some pieces are from Europe, Africa and other Asian countries.