York Chow tells festival audience about perils of sex in a cubicle
York Chow shares patients' tale with audience at Sex Cultural Festival
Former health secretary Dr York Chow Yat-ngok shared his first-hand experience of the space constraints on sex in the city yesterday - but not in the way people might think.
The orthopaedic surgeon said he once had to treat a family of four who were injured when their shared bed collapsed while the parents were having sex on the top bunk. They were living in a cubicle home in public housing.
"Imagine how the couple felt afterwards," Chow said, with a shake of his head. "They wouldn't want to [have sex] after that."
According to a survey released last week, more than 80 per cent of respondents said there was not enough space for sex in the city, with a fifth of respondents saying their living space was too small.
Chow's story and other tales of sex and sexuality were shared at the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre in Shek Kip Mei yesterday, as the Equal Opportunities Commission chairperson kicked off the sixth annual Hong Kong Sex Cultural Festival.
Young boys in high heels and lipstick shook and shimmied across stage, while architecture students showed off their high-rise designs featuring burlesque halls, pole-dance studios, peep shows and a sex-crime museum.
Artists offered their interpretations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) love and sex, with a nod to the late Keith Haring and Marcel Duchamp.
And the operators of Secret Tour Hong Kong told a forum about their walks taking people into the heart of sexy Hong Kong - featuring saunas, lesbian bars, and red-light districts. Visitors also had the chance to step into a (replica) one-woman brothel.
Chow pledged his support for the city's LGBT community, saying he would push the government to pass legislation protecting sexual minorities.
He said that while conservative and religious segments of the population might see the LGBT community as sinners who "needed to be cured", research in the past 30 years had shown their sexual preferences were just a natural variation of the norm.
"I won't say who, but some of my very close friends are gay," said Chow, who is Christian. "They are not out in public, but they are in our group of friends."
