Sex Ideologies in China: Examining Interprovince Differences

Abstract

In recent decades, premarital sex, extramarital sex, and homosexuality have become increasingly visible in China, leading scholars to claim that a national “sex revolution” is under way. However, China’s internal sociocultural diversity calls this nation-level generalization into question. How do sex ideologies vary across China’s distinct provinces? To what extent are interprovince variations in sex ideologies associated with distinct macrolevel social factors in China? In this research, data from the 2010 China General Social Survey and the 2011 Chinese Statistics Yearbook were analyzed using multilevel models to test four contending theories of interprovince differences in sex ideologies in China: modernization, Westernization, deindustrialization, and the “rice theory.” The modernization theory was unsupported by the results, as socioeconomic development is not significantly associated with sex ideologies. Higher levels of deindustrialization and Westernization were associated with less traditional sex ideologies, but the strength of association varied across the domains of premarital sex, extramarital sex, and homosexuality. The rice theory was consistently supported, as the distinction between rice and wheat agriculture explained up to 30% of the province-level variance in sex ideologies. The findings underline the roles of both long-standing geographic differences and recent social changes in shaping China’s ideational landscape of sex.

Acknowledgments

The China General Social Survey is conducted by China Renmin University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The Chinese Statistics Yearbook is compiled by the National Statistical Bureau of China. The author is solely responsible for the analyses and interpretations presented in this study. I would like to thank Jacqueline Scott and Fangsheng Zhu for their insightful comments on earlier versions of this article.

Notes

^1. Whereas the term tertiary sector is used to refer to the educational and cultural sectors in Western societies, its coverage is wider in China, including all nonagricultural and nonindustrial economies such as education, catering, service provision, and cultural enterprises.

^2. Talhelm et al. (2014) confirmed that rice theory applies to border areas between rice-growing and wheat-growing regions.

^3. Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau were not included as they are not covered by the CGSS. These three regions host less than 1% of the Chinese population.