First Chinese sex comedy seduces censors

A film billed as China's first sex comedy has made its debut through a video website, and has won a surprising vote of approval from the official media.

Its title, Red Light Revolution, does not refer to communism but is about an unemployed Beijing man who opens a sex shop after his money-mad wife walks out on him.

The film had no chance of being screened in Chinese cinemas but censors gave it a cautious approval for distribution through a popular video-sharing website, Tudou.com.

It has even been welcomed by the Global Times, a newspaper controlled by the People's Daily, which specialises in shrill patriotism and the defence of Chinese values against "western decadence". In a departure from its customary rhetoric, the paper quoted a speech by the film's hero, Shunzi: "Sex. Shagging. Making love. Whatever you want to call it, everyone does it. But nobody does it more than us Chinese. Why? Because there are 1.3 billion of us."

If this is patriotic pride of a kind, it was echoed by the China Daily in its report on the film, which noted that 70 per cent of the world's sex toys are made in China; there are 10,000 companies involved in making them; and billions of condoms are sold in the country every year.

China's first sex shop opened in 1993 and the official media reports that there are now 2,000 in Beijing alone. Public attitudes are depicted in the film as hypocritical. When Shunzi opens the shop, his neighbours profess to be disgusted, but they are soon popping in after dark to purchase inflatable dolls, vibrators and other sex toys.

"In China people are still conservative when dealing with the topic of sex, as reflected in most mainstream movies," wrote Xu Ming in the Global Times.

The film's naughty-but-nice tone has been cleverly calculated to shock but not to outrage. One of its actresses, Vivid Wang, has told audiences that if they are looking for porn, this is not the movie for them, as there is no obscenity or nudity.

The Global Times quoted Li Zhong, a critic, as saying the film was a "gentle and conservative exploration of modern society".

The comedy was made in 2010 by the Australian director Sam Voutas and the producer Melanie Ansley, working with the Chinese film-maker Wang Yifan. It has taken two years for it to reach a legitimate Chinese audience.

Voutas joked that on set in China the props kept going missing. The media has solemnly noted that since imperial times "marital aids" have featured in Chinese erotic life.

Today's censors and online vigilantes have failed to stem a tide of hardcore pornography reaching young Chinese on the internet. Yet Chinese film makers have not yet dared to breach the boundaries of official taste when it comes to softcore comedy. As a result, millions of Chinese have obtained their dose of adolescent angst from such classics as the Hollywood comedy American Pie as well as teen films from Hong Kong and South Korea.

Critics, however, say Chinese cultural traditions mean audiences need time to adapt and would find it embarrassing to watch such movies in a crowded theatre.

"As Chinese people are taking on more liberal ideas towards sex, we can expect more films of this genre to come out in the future," said the Global Times.

So long — of course — as they do not mention Tibet, Taiwan or the Dalai Lama.