Comments on: China, porn and unintended consequences

By: Jarv

Jarv — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:31:01 +0000

The last thing they need is teenage pregnancies.

This is an exsaduration, but honestly from the other angle they are trying to deglamourise sex which is a good thing in one way.

By: bran

bran — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:27:33 +0000

@michael
I don’t think that he was carping on China. At least I didn’t read it in that way. The point that I took away from his post is that he believes — possibly based on personal experience in China, which he sort of alludes to — that most Chinese people expect the government to mandate morality, or at the very least for the government’s “official position” on various topics to be in line with the majority culture’s view of what is moral. Therefore, if the majority culture views pornography as bad, but something that is hidden away — possibly done in private but you’re supposed to feel bad/dirty about it — then they would expect the government to have a similar view/stance on the subject (i.e. making porn harder to find/access).

But I believe that it’s also very hard to ‘generalize’ China because it’s so huge there are a number of different cultures that make up ‘China’ — though from what I understand the Chinese government does not really want to recognize cultures like Tibetan and the muslim cultures of (North) Western China. Just because someone spends a few years living in Beijing wouldn’t necessarily be the entire picture of “China” as a whole.

By: Who says the Internet is heavily censored in China? « My agnostic views & images I like

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 19:03:52 +0000

[...] China, porn and unintended consequences (ethanzuckerman.com) Posted in choices. No Comments » [...]

By: michael

michael — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 06:19:29 +0000

what do you know about china, man? where did you get that 50%?
it’s weird: when it comes to anything about china, almost all western people tend to view it in a carping way.
yes, many young people in china watch those pornography, it’s not unlike young people of any other country
there are some corrupted officials in china, and it’s not unlike that of any other country
think about yourself before pick on someone else, man!

By: seth

seth — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:17:03 +0000

good point. i agree with your observation, the tighter china clenches its fist the more control will slip through its fingers. however, i’m not sure if i agree with your assumption, that the government is consciously blocking porn as a ruse for blocking political speech.

i think they’re really ardently anti-porn. in my experience, a large percentage of people in china would expect their government to regulate morality. indeed, they have for thousands of years.

this doesn’t mean chinese people or officials are prudes (50% or more of those same officials might have a second mistress, etc), but it does mean that the chinese concept of public morality, especially when it comes to youth, is quite strong. so, in essence, i believe the average chinese person would not be shocked that people look at porn, but they would be shocked if their government publicly said it was ok to do so.

i guess, in the end, my rights-based ideology tells me you’re right, but my experience in china tells me to pause before projecting a certain type of intentionality on “the government.”