Youth and sexuality in China

A century of revolutionary change

Bibliographic Data

ID20082655
AuthorsJ Farrer (0000-0002-9847-0347, corresponding author)
Year2014
Pages150-161
Publication date2014-09-15
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueRoutledge Handbook of Sexuality Studies in East Asia (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781315774879-14
OpenAlexW4378448183
ISBN9781315774879
LanguageEN
Citations received6

This chapter describes the youth sexual culture that has developed in mainland China, exploring the claim that there has been a ‘sexual revolution’ in youth sexuality. Globally, the emergence of distinct youth cultures is associated with industrialisation, urbanisation, institutionalised education, mass media, and delayed marriage. In the 1960s, however, youth became the focus of the Maoist social experiment aimed at creating a new socialist subject. A youth sexual revolution in the 1990s would challenge this patriarchal culture of premarital chastity, bringing unprecedented sexual freedom to young women as well as young men. Social spaces are important in the formation of any culture, including sexual cultures. Although economic inequalities and heteronormative marriage pressures still restrict their options, young Chinese women, probably for the first time ever, are now able to legitimately pursue love, sex and pleasure outside of marriage

China · Human sexuality · Political science · Sociology · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · History · Law · Sex work and related issues

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