A "professional" survey released recently by the multi-national company Durex reveals a most private part of Taiwanese life: the average frequency of sexual activity by Taiwanese, the average age they have their first sexual experience, and the average number of sex partners each of them have.
The survey results were distributed throughout the media and, like in the Olympic Games, ranked according to performance. The release was followed by professional interpretations from scholars and experts alike.
Poor Taiwan always seems to lag behind in championship contests. Now they are near the bottom of this list, too -- far away from "progressive" European and American countries. Thus, numbers speak when contained in expert analyses. The fact that we are doing less quantitatively is interpreted to mean that we are "repressed" or "conservative." It is also taken to mean that we "can't relax" or that we have "too many taboos."
In the past, people believed in a very different set of truths. They believed that having too much sex could cause physical harm to a person. Thus, the emperor would issue an edict on New Year's Day, warning all men in his country not to engage in sex too many times, or they would "cut short their years and happiness."
Today, the power of knowledge is in the hands of experts. Common people are taken to task by these experts for even their most intimate sexual secrets. Now the experts are telling us it won't do to have sex too infrequently. A lower-than-average figure is suggested to mean repressed, abnormal behavior.
They reveal the truth with their professional knowledge: "frequency" is not just an indication of whether people are enjoying normal sex lives. It also represents how open their society is.
Quantified statistical results are a delicate system of standardization. When we say victory by "quantity," we mean numbers -- counted in the same way we count steamed buns (
Apart from setting standards for our sexual behavior, the survey has also created for us standards for "sexiness." Think about it. If everyone in Taiwan says Tom Cruise is the sexiest man alive and you don't agree with them -- or if you don't even know what he looks like -- then you are a real loser.
Ping Lu is a social critic and columnist.
Translated by Francis Huang
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