Meaning in absence: The case of tampon use among Chinese women

ABSTRACT

While the tampon is a popular female hygiene product that is used in most western countries, within the Chinese market, around 98 percent of women use sanitary napkins and only 1.9 percent use tampons. The culture is changing rapidly in China today, but tampons have not been accepted by many women. What do Chinese women think about using tampons? How do culture and objects interact with each other in terms of rejection and receptivity? This paper tries to answer these questions by discussing the relationship between culture and objects, Chinese sexual culture, and the perceptions of women regarding tampons. It is possible to gain extensive cultural knowledge about Chinese society and values by exploring what the absence of this object means, which in turn provides a glimpse into the socio-cultural fabric of a society and the operational values of the community.

ABSTRACT IN SIMPLIFIED CHINESE

在大多数西方国家，卫生棉条都是女性最常用的经期卫生用品。但是在中国至今只有百分之一点九的女性使用过卫生棉条，百分之九十八的女性仍然惯常使用卫生巾。在中国经济文化等各个方面都加速国际化的当代社会，卫生棉条依然不被中国女性所接受。中国女性对卫生棉条究竟持怎样的态度？一个物件被一种文化接受或者拒绝有着怎样的内在规律？这篇文章从以下几个方面讨论了以上问题：物件与文化的关系，中国的性文化，中国女性对卫生棉条的认知与态度。通过探索缺失物件背后的故事与意义，我们可以对中国文化有更进一步的了解，同时也可以一窥当今中国社会的主流文化价值观。

KEYWORDS:

• Tampon
• meaning in absence
• Chinese sexual culture
• culture and objects
• female sanitary products
• Chinese women

KEYWORDS:

• 卫生棉条
• 缺失事物的意义
• 中国性文化
• 文化与物件
• 女性卫生用品
• 中国女性

Note on contributors

Liqi REN is a current Ph.D. candidate in Design School at Arizona State University, focusing on industrial design, national identity and creative industry in China. She has accomplished design and research professional with seven years of distinguish training in China and in United States. She got her Master Degree in Arizona State University with a thesis that focused on integration Chinese traditional culture into contemporary design. Liqi has her unique understanding of China and devotes herself to explore the phenomenon of meaning in absence from the perspective of sexual culture and feminism in Chinese culture and society.

Denis SIMON is Executive Vice Chancellor of Duke Kunshan University. Dr. Simon received his B.A. degree in Asian Studies from the State University of New York in 1974. He received his M.A. degree in Asian Studies in 1975 and Ph.D. in Political Science in 1980 from the University of California at Berkeley. He has written and lectured widely regarding innovation, high technology development, foreign investment and corporate strategy in the Pacific-Rim and is frequently quoted in the Western and Asian business press regarding commercial and technology trends in China, Hong Kong and the Asia-Pacific region.

Jianfeng WU is an associate professor of industrial design in Zhejiang University of Technology. From Zhejiang University, Dr. Wu has received his B.S degree in Thermal Power Engineering in 1998, M.S degree in Mechanical Engineering and Automation in 2005 and Ph.D in Digital Art and Design in 2008. He has published over 30 articles and accomplished research professional on industrial design in the past 15 years. His research focused on cultural innovative design, interaction design in the context of particular culture, and applied informatics in design.

Notes

1. Winston Churchill said this in a speech in the House of Commons on October 28, 1944.