An exhibition about Chinese erotica through the ages is providing Americans with an antidote to the conservative clampdown in the wake of the momentary glimpse of one of Janet Jackson's breasts at the Super Bowl. With the anointed guardians of a clean United States at the Federal Communications Commission now prepared to pounce on any TV or radio personality who does anything or mutters any words deemed obscene, it is fascinating to see how a much older culture has been in and out of periods when openness towards sex was encouraged and other times when it was frowned upon.
The exhibition at the Museum of Sex in Manhattan, which is entitled 'Sex Among the Lotus: 2,500 Years of Chinese Erotic Obsession', opened last month and is attracting sizeable crowds. On display are rarely seen artifacts, such as a 10th century rock-crystal sculpture of a penis, exquisitely painted pillow books to educate young brides, illustrations from ancient erotic novels such as Jinpingmei (Golden Lotus), and a 17th century manual illustrating a variety of sexual positions and techniques.
Altogether, there are more than 300 works of art from private and public collections in the US, Europe and Asia - from the explicit imagery of tomb tiles from more than 2,000 years ago and details about the sexual escapades of Tang dynasty emperors, to the latest pornography from mainland China. The exhibition also details the less wholesome aspects of Chinese attitudes to sex through the years, from a series of photographs of prostitutes who worked in Shanghai's notorious red light districts, to a large selection of shoes for bound feet.
'It seems we are actually a pioneer in this, rather than westerners,' said a Chinese woman visitor looking at one of the sex manuals. Others were also surprised by the extent of previous sexual revolutions in China. 'I had heard of the bound feet, but it's really surprising to see that's only the tip of the iceberg,' said Erica Smith, a 36-year-old computer programmer.
There are also references to the more repressive periods for Chinese erotica, including Communist Party literature on the one-child policy brought in by Deng Xiaoping in 1979.
'The sexual repression, especially during the Cultural Revolution, may have misled people,' said Liu Dalin, the founder and director of the Shanghai-based Sex Museum, who helped organise the New York exhibition, which runs until the end of the year. 'Erotic culture has had a very long history in China.' Repression of erotica, he added, is 'an abnormal state of affairs'.
