Sex, sexual problems and sexual agency in Hong Kong Chinese women

Abstract

On July 1, 1997, China resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong, ending more than 150 years of British colonial rule. Hong Kong is therefore an interesting mix of Chinese and British influences. Ng and Ho provide an overview of some of the relevant sociocultural factors affecting sex, marriage, and procreation in China and in Hong Kong in particular. China’s once rich and open approach to sexuality was changed by the influences of neo-Confucianism and Christianity. As a result, the valuing of sexual pleasure was supplanted by the importance placed on sexual restraint. The authors note the high incidence of sexual problems and dissatisfaction in the sexually conservative culture of Hong Kong. The emphasis on sexual purity or virginity for women has led to the idea that one’s vagina can become “locked” leading to problems with painful intercourse.

While Hong Kong has been introduced to Western style sex therapy and sex therapy clinics have long waiting lists, it is unclear whether Western style sex therapy translates to the culture of Hong Kong or China. The cases presented here describe resolution of vaginismus, not by psychotherapy or sex therapy, but by a physician utilizing vaginal dilators. A didactic and directive approach is described in the two cases. As a result, successful treatment of vaginismus is not necessarily the same as the ability of the couple to have intercourse become part of their pleasurable sexual repertoire. The women described in the two cases wanted to have intercourse in order to have children.

The treatment option that is raised here is that it may be more expedient and more in keeping with cultural imperatives to separate intercourse from sexual pleasure in order to more quickly and efficiently achieve the goal of conception. Sexual pleasure for the women described in this chapter was reserved for nonpenetrative sex. The husbands of these women seemed agreeable to this strategy. It may not work well in some other cultures, but it may be a treatment option for those cultures in which women are able to exercise some control over their sexuality, once it is separated from their fertility.