His business, which has since grown at the rate of more than 20 percent per year, now employs 300 people during the peak season before Christmas.
At the company's factory in the People Love Technology Park in Shenzhen, products are tailored to meet the different demands of major buyers in Japan and the US.
Casting an expert eye over a range of blow-up dolls, he said westerners preferred large realistic figures with lipstick and wigs, while his Asian customers tended towards petite inflatables with cartoon faces.
"I think Asians emphasise the fantasy element of play, while westerners think more in terms of realism and utilization," he said.
Given China's 1.3 billion population, he said domestic sales were relatively small, but were growing fast.
sex toy fair
At a sex toy fair last year in Shanghai, the organizers estimated that the business was already worth 100 bn renminbi (US$12.1 billion) and expanding at the rate of 30 percent per year.
"It takes time for people to accept such toys," said Fang. "But Chinese people are like any other human beings. When consumption levels rise, so does the interest in things like this. I think Chinese people are having more fun."
Sociologists, health workers and sexologists all agree that China is becoming more promiscuous, although sex education at schools and universities is rudimentary or non-existent.
According to a 2004 study quoted in the People's Daily, only 21 percent of Chinese men knew where to find the clitoris.
Last year the most rapid increase in new HIV cases was among teenagers, many of whom were unaware of how the disease was transmitted.
Among China's most notorious bedroom activists is the blogger Mu Zimei, whose online revelations about 70 lovers, many married or famous, became so popular that the authorities shut her site down, because they saw it as a threat to social morality.
But Mu Zimei (real name Li Li) said woman were leading the trend towards not only more sex, but more pleasure.
sexual roles
"Traditionally, the sexual role of Chinese women was too passive. But now they take the initiative. Sex is no longer only for reproduction. Women regard it as a source of pleasure, so they put more emphasis on the quality of their sex lives."
In its industrialized form, however, excessive sex does have its drawbacks. At the Shaki factory, there is no excited talk about sexual revolution, nor even the slightest titillation or shocked giggles.
The workers labor in near silence for eight hours a day for US$80 to US$100 per month, knocking out so many cheap thrills for the world that they become numb to what they are doing.
"For the first few days, this job felt a bit strange," said one woman. "But after that you forget what you're holding. It becomes just another object."



