Officially, the government has seized on three themes for the coming 2008 Games in Beijing. They're being promoted as the Green Olympics, the High-Tech Olympics, and the People's Olympics. In a nation that's embraced everything from the Super Bowl to Valentine's Day as a marketing tool, the Summer Games might as well be dubbed the Sexy Olympics, too.
China's booming sex-toy industry is capitalizing on the Olympic spirit to market themed "adult" products. The online auction website Paipai advertises rainbow-colored sex beads described as a "Lusty sex toy for men and women — five Olympic rings, five colored pull pearls." And the price is accessible to the masses, as well: 12 RMB per set, or about USD 15. Last August another Chinese auction site called Taobao began selling condoms emblazoned with one of the five rainbow-colored Olympic mascots, according to the popular blog Danwei.org.
Meanwhile, during Fourth China Reproductive Health New Technologies and Products Expo organized in Beijing by the Guilin Latex Factory--China's largest condom manufacturer, according to Reuters -- models wearing clothing comprised of condoms sashayed down the catwalks. The organizers said they hoped to promote use of the "garment." (The event marked World Population Day last July.)
Not so very long ago, condoms were the one item that women did NOT want to be discovered carrying in their purses. That's because police had a habit of labeling ladies possessing more than one condom as prostitutes. But now condoms are emerging from the shadows. A new municipal government policy requires every one of Beijing's 700 hotels to provide condoms for guests by the end of 2008 in response to growing awareness of the risk of sexually transmitted disease, as well as China's recent spike in reported HIV/AIDS cases.
This new policy is a response to the 973 new HIV/AIDS cases recorded in the first 10 months of 2007-- a 54 percent year-on-year jump – and has no direct link to the Olympics festivities in August. "This [policy] is a quality, progressive move by the government that reflects a strong national commitment to slowing the spread of the HIV virus. It is important from both a practical and symbolic standpoint," said Gabriel Suk, Founder-Director of Prevention Through Education, a nonprofit organization working in China on school-based HIV/AIDS education programs.
He was unwilling to comment on the possibility of an "anticipated boom in sex this year," or to describe the condom campaign in a way that would suggest HIV/AIDS infection was a China-specific problem. But hey, if the Games can help promote disease-prevention – and maybe even a bit of healthy fun – then why not? Suk acknowledged that the Olympics celebrations could well put revelers in a partying mood for which condoms might just come in handy, "It's really just a by-product of the Olympic spirit!" Let the Games begin, by all means.
