CHINA: Sex. There's a lot of it in new China, even if that's hardly a controversial statement in the world's most populous country, whose 1.3 billion people are proof positive that a lot of people are doing it. But attitudes to sex remain prudish, Clifford Coonan reports from Beijing
But the booming economy that came about after market reforms in the late 1970s has brought with it a change in sexual mores.
The ruling Communist party has become less puritanical over the years since they took power in 1949 and freshly unleashed market forces have prompted a rise in long alien concepts, such as adolescent dating, adultery, prostitution and promiscuity.
That said, the family structure still holds sway in China and young people are strictly controlled. As most youngsters live at home until they get married, there are few venues for lovers' trysts, although public parks get quite crowded and steamy at night.
As the government tightly controls the media and censors films, theatre and books, there is little scope for a pioneering sex writer or filmmaker to reach the public eye.
Sex sells and they know this in China, which makes around 70 percent of the world's sex toys. China's first sex shop opened around 10 years ago in Beijing, with the demure title The Adam and Eve Health Centre, but now there are a number of discreet sex shops dotted along the country's streets.
A saucy toy fair in Shanghai recently featured S&M gear, vibrators and other "adult health products".
This month the Chinese Institute of Sexology and the Chinese Medical Association conducted the country's first nationwide female sex survey, which asked intimate questions about the sex lives of women.
Respondents were invited to reply via a popular website and tens of thousands quickly did.
Women were asked, "How often do you have sex per month and how many times do you expect to have sex in a month?"
"The aim of the survey is to find out the status of Chinese women's sex lives, analyse their sexual behaviour and psychology and provide sexual knowledge and advice," said Ma Xiaonian, a sexology expert.
The questionnaire breaks further taboos when it asks: "Do you get pleasure during sex?" - a much smaller survey 10 years ago discovered that 50 per cent of Chinese women did not experience orgasm during sex.
The survey also asks, "Have you ever had extra-marital affairs?" another major no-no in this eastern country.
This kind of thing never happened in Chairman Mao's day.
Enterprising park-keepers in the town of Lin'an saw an opportunity when eight female university students stripped off and swam naked in a river in the park.
The keepers quickly stuck up signs saying "nude swimming area", one for men and one for women. Both were removed when park visitors protested, but were soon displayed again when the coast was clear.
Some liken the changes in sexual mores to Mao's Cultural Revolution, although others say it is more modest, but attitudes are changing.
Just as books like Lady Chatterley's Lover or films like Last Tango in Paris heralded more liberal attitudes to sex in the west, the popular arts are leading the charge. China is famous for its martial arts films and has a high cultural tolerance for violence, but cinema draws the line at explicit sex.
One of the most successful Chinese films of recent years was Cell Phone, which dealt with the increasingly common practice among newly wealthy, urban men of keeping mistresses, known as "er nai" or "second breast".
Books like Wei Hui's Shanghai Baby detailed the lives of that city's sexually active, drug-taking, hip young things and sold over 80,000 copies before it was banned by "old men who can't stand to see a young, pretty woman writing so calmly about sex," as Ms Hui put it.
Li Li, a young writer from Guangzhou, was fired from her job last year for sharing details of her sexual exploits on an online diary, or blog as it is also called.
Under the pseudonym Muzimei, she wrote racy essays on relationships and love as well as giving in-depth accounts of her busy sexual schedule, which were read by 110,000 people every day.
Increasingly, attitudes to sex are being forced to change, as sexual behaviour becomes a health issue.
The rising number of AIDS cases prompted the government to allow condom ads for the first time last year and take other steps to stop the disease spreading.
And more than 50 percent of Chinese men over the age of 40 suffer from varying degrees of impotence. Most delay seeking treatment because they are too embarrassed, according to a nationwide survey recently.
The ruling Communist Party blames the sexual revolution on liberal bourgeois ideologies imported from the West and says it is not happy with the changing attitudes. The government is working hard to keep the covers on all this naked flesh.
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has issued rules for TV anchors to stop showing too much skin or displaying their navels or cleavage, wearing plunging necklines or short skirts.
And the pioneering nudist beach in Zhejiang was forced into a cover-up just 15 days after it opened, because outraged locals were fearful the sight of all that naked flesh could corrupt public morals.
The government has also introduced a plan, which will jail purveyors of Internet pornography for life.
In some cases, compromise on what's smut and what's not has been possible - the Culture Ministry gave qualified approval to Britney Spears' first tour of China, on condition that she doesn't dare to go too bare.
As the state news agency reported: "Relevant departments will carry out strict reviews of Britney Spears' performance clothing."