The Ancient Chinese Sex Culture Museum, China's first sex museum
located in Jiangsu, will open its doors to under-aged visitors for
the first time since it opened in 1995, in its bid to become a sex
education base for youngsters.
Founders of the museum said on Sunday that they would also
cooperate with a Shanghai polytechnic to turn the museum into a
training base for sex education teachers, and to transform the
museum into an academic communication base.
They wouldn't reveal the name of the polytechnic.
The museum has on display over 4,000 sex culture relics and sex
appliances found in China, including more than 20 collections
dating back some 5000 to 6000 years. The items were collected by
the museum's founder, Liu Dalin, a retired professor of sociology
from Shanghai
University, and his colleagues.
The museum's directors are aware that admitting minors could
lead to opposition from the public. "But with society's increasing
understanding of sex, a growing number of people realize that it's
a pity to hide such good education material from youngsters," Hu
Hongxia, Liu's partner, said.
"And it could even be considered a waste of precious cultural
materials," Hu added.
Some exhibits that are considered too graphic will be kept in a
special hall that will remain closed to minors, and young visitors
will be asked to watch a 30-minute sex education video before a
tour of the museum.
Neither Hu nor Liu would say when exactly minors would be
allowed entry to the museum, only saying that it would happen "as
soon as possible."
Hu also said that they have finished compiling a set of sex
education textbooks for university students, covering a wide range
of topics including marriage and AIDS prevention, which are
scheduled to be published in January.
The museum moved from its original location in Shanghai to
Tongli, Jiangsu Province, in April 2004 due to low visitor rates
and high rentals.
(Shanghai Daily November 14, 2005)