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CULTURE
Sex Toys Are Called ‘Interesting And Delightful Toys’ In China
In China, people are more open about sex than you think!
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In China, a sex shop used to be called an adult health products shop. When I first saw it, I thought it was interesting and refreshing that it was called such. It’s much more inviting, especially for women, to walk into a shop like that without feeling like a dirty-minded or sex maniac, as one would feel in many sex shops in the West.
It’s now called an adult products shop. It nevertheless is still inviting for women to go in, especially when sex toys are called interesting and delightful toys (情趣玩具), a figurative expression of “toys that spice up your romantic relationship.”
Chinese, in general, don’t talk or joke about sex openly as in the West; however, they talk about it and do it in private without inhibition because they have no religious hangups; women don’t associate it with reproduction. Enjoying sex is considered the same as taking pleasure in eating; it’s even regarded as healthy according to the Chinese belief of balancing the Yin (women) and Yang (men).
