[John Beresford Tipton]

"It depicted a future Stalinist regime in which sex,
except for producing children, is prohibited "

Could Orwell have forseen some FReepers, sounds like it.

[Keyes2000mt]

When I was in college, I heard a student argue that people discovering porn would undermine the Chinese dictatorship. I guess stupidity loves company. The author seems to think that decadent whores and whoremongers are going to be the harbinger of CHinese democracy.

[Malsua]

Anecdotal story.

As my company has a factory in an industrial park in Fuyong, I made some tender inquiries over a few Tsing Tao's (beer)with a guy who runs our operation(a Hong Kong Chinese guy). Now, we run a tight ship, and don't tolerate any of that, but he said that the dorms in the park are like fields of sheep for some of the guys that work for other companies.

Since you can't really hire men in China to do factory work unless it's "skilled or heavy labor", most of the workers in this park are women. I've been told "men are trouble". There are probably 3000 women(we employ about 120) and about 200 men. I'm told they generally run through the women like socks. Shrug...can't validate it...will inquire more on my next trip in Jan/Feb but there seems to be a sexual revolution(i.e. aids central) that no one wants to really talk about.

[sport]

According to what you mean when you say "liberate".

The so-called sexual revolution in the U.S. liberated the U.S. to the degree that before the sexual revolution we basically had two veneral diseases [stds]. Since being "liberated", we now have so many veneral diseases [stds] that even the doctors do not know them all.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Why do the dictators in Orwell's fiction and in real-life China so fear sex?

Same reason the leaders of authoritarian and fundamentalist religions fear sex.

[longshadow]

"But it is also interesting that while communist officials inveigh against the new freedom, they have not brought the full brunt of their guns and tanks to bear on the new rebels, as they did in Tiananmen Square. Perhaps they realize that so many resources would be wasted and so much blood shed in such an attack that the country's economy, to say nothing of its reputation in the world, would suffer. Perhaps they believe that, while undesirable, it is better for young people to channel their rebellion into sexual escapades than into politics, as they did in Tiananmen Square."

Either that, or the politburo members are too busy getting laid to bother doing anything about it.

;-)

[taiwansemi]

China's didn't grow to have a 1.3 bil. and growing population by practicing celibacy.

[taiwansemi]

Why do the dictators in Orwell's fiction and in real-life China so fear sex?

China's population grew by 700 mil. (more than 100%) over the past 50 years while the Communists were in power because Mao specifically encouraged Chinese couples to have 5-6 kids per family. He thought that any great country requires a large population. Indeed, it is because of China's large population today that everyone fears China's economic potential and future economic output. Even during the past 20 years when the one-child policy has been in effect, China's popultion grew by an additional 300 mil., which is bigger than America's entire current population.