For a week, Hong Kong will be the world's centre of sexology, as experts

WAN CHAI is about to become the world's sex centre. That may not be news to those who get their jollies watching young women dancing around chrome poles, but it may surprise the rest of the populace.

Beginning tomorrow, the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre's soaring sheets of glass will steam up while a pheromone fog will seep into the streets. Why? Because everyone who's anyone in the world of sex is in town for the 14th World Congress on Sexology.

Now, a world congress sounds very impressive, but it also raises some important questions: what the heck is sexology? And is it legal? Dr Ng Man-lun, professor of psychiatry, Hong Kong Sex Education Association vice-president, prime mover in getting the congress to Hong Kong and general sexual guru, says anyone getting hot under the collar should cool down.

'Sexology is simply the science of studying sex. It's an interdisciplinary subject. It can include any subjects you have in the world, as long as they relate to sex, such as erotic art, which you can study in a scientific way. And then you can have sociology of sex, psychology of sex, sexual medicine, sexual literature, whatever.' The World Association for Sexology holds its congress every two years. This one, says its president, Professor Eli Coleman, is titled Sexuality In The New Millennium.

'This congress will be the first held on Chinese soil,' he says. 'We will have the opportunity to see how sexology is studied in a culture which encompasses over one-quarter of the world's population. What we can contribute and learn from this congress will certainly shed light on what we should and could do in shaping our sexuality in the coming century.' The paradox of this sex-fest is that many of its luminaries are so, well, unsexy. The University of Hong Kong's Dr Ng, despite his unofficial title of 'Dr Sex', is a bookish chap with rumpled grey slacks and a comb-over. A trawl through the local organising committee reveals the presence of renowned raunchsters like Peggy Lam Pei Yu-dja, Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai and Dr Leong Che-hung - who, admittedly, sports a sleek Valentino-style centre parting.

Still, any lack of sex appeal on the part of the organisers will not stop the convention centre resounding to the many and varied sounds of sex. The packed programme features dozens of speakers on myriad topics, ranging from the odd to the otiose, the banal to the bizarre - everything you ever wanted to know about sex, in fact, but were afraid to ask.

Keynote speakers include Danish sexologist Gorm Wagner, who will focus on the Viagra revolution, Chinese Medical Association honorary president and 'father of sexology in modern China' Wu Jieping and German Professor Erwin Haeberle, who promises to address himself with gusto to the intriguing problems of sex and the Internet with a 'live demonstration'.