| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Shanghai adult toy fair hits the spot |
| 2004-08-06 |
| EFL.Nice picture at the link of some Chinese guy meeting his new girlfriend. Wu Xiao never thought he'd see the day -- China's first officially sanctioned exhibition of adult toys, complete with leather body suits, vibrating rubber tongues and even a U.S. adult movie star. "It's revolutionary!" enthused Wu, the Shanghai sales manager for Wenzhou Lover Health Product Co Ltd, China's largest producer of what are known euphemistically in China as "adult health products". Wenzhou Lover Health Product Co Ltd? I can imagine some of the Chinglish directions that come with some of these things... "China's changed so much since we started," he said at the show where dildos, vibrators, flavoured lubricants and condoms of every conceivable shape, size and colour were on display. Yep, Mao would keel over dead. Or be a big customer. While Shanghai was known as the "Whore of the Orient" in the swinging 1920s and 30s, its brothels and wild cabarets were long ago closed by the prudish Communists who swept to power in 1949. But since China began opening up again in the late 1970s, attitudes to sex have begun cautiously to change -- to the extent that the Shanghai government approved the show that opened on Friday. If the Chinese are making them, I guess we'll be seeing these things at our local WalMart soon. Except in Alabama. Opinions are changing fast, say industry insiders. "It's true, there was some opposition when we went into business 11 years ago," Wu Wei, president of Wenzhou Lover, told Reuters, adding that he often test drove new products personally."Nobody else was making them and we saw the opportunity. I mean, there's 1.3 billion people in China. What a market!" "He often test drove new products personally". Can't wait to see that on the History Channel's "Modern Marvels". Firms like Wenzhou Lover still face a struggle to persuade Chinese to use toys that carry names such as "The Salsa Shaker," "Pleasure Periscope" and the unnerving-sounding "The Emperor". ...and the even more unnerving-sounding "Chairman Mao". Pirated and illegal hard-core pornography is readily available on street corners. "If that's the only way they can get them I'd rather have them see me than not," U.S. adult movie star Cindy Crawford told Reuters. Resplendent in pink mini-skirt and revealing plaid top, Crawford -- no relation to the world-famous U.S. supermodel of the same name -- was mobbed by Chinese men wanting her autograph because they believed she was her more famous namesake. I wonder if that's her real name? Well, not really... "I don't have one of those," said Xie Huazhen, who had come from the southern province of Guangdong just to go to the show, I'm soooooooo lonely.... as she giggled into her handbag and looked at Crawford's own range of adult toys. "Actually, yes I do. I have several," she admitted sheepishly a second later, before scurrying off to another booth. Is this another sector of the American economy that the Chinese will soon decimate? Only time will tell. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #3 the Nivea Brigade™? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-08-06 10:39:18 PM |
| #2 This is a Very Good Thing. Think how many Chinese men have no chance whatsoever of getting married because of all those aborted baby girls, or even of occasionally getting laid. If the choice is offering them a substitute, or having them enrolled in the Chinese army (the traditional destination for surplus males), I would be willing to donate some tax money (*gasp*) to keep the boys happily employed, so to speak! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2004-08-06 10:14:06 PM |
| #1 what spot? ;) |
| Posted by: muck4doo 2004-08-06 6:22:48 PM |