Monday, Aug 14, 2006    Text size: 

More than 100 manufacturers were on hand to show their latest products to 3,000 buyers such as Doc Johnson, Fun Factory and Alexander Institute. About 60,000 people attended the three-day show, which was open to the public during select hours.

The show is indicative of China’s somewhat duplicitous attitude toward adult entertainment. On the one hand, the government is working to stamp out porn sites and actively censors material its citizens can access online and buy in video stores. On the other hand, it relies heavily on revenues from exports of adult goods.

While the government trumpets the show’s role in international health and sex education, the emphasis on the show floor was on commerce and fun.

China is the world’s largest exporter of sex toys and novelties, with an estimated 1,000 factories involved in the manufacture of “adult healthcare products.”

The Chinese government estimates that about one-third of all adult products and 80 percent of sex toys and condoms sold worldwide are made in China, with annual revenues from sales of Chinese adult products reaching RenMinBi 50 billion ($6.7 billion).

In an interview with China Daily, Jimmy Cai, CEO of Chinese condom manufacturer DKT, said sex is still a taboo subject for most Chinese, even those at a convention based on sexual goods — but added that people are warming to the topic.

“At the first show two years ago everyone was very shy to see what would happen because having a show like this was unheard of,” Cai said. “Then the second year the skirts got a bit shorter, and now look at it, it's almost like Las Vegas.”

Authorized by the China Healthcare Association Sexual Medical and Healthcare Sub-Council, the show serves as a primary platform for international trade for China’s numerous sex toy manufacturers and a global sourcing fair for western firms.

The show also hosted the first-ever Healthcare Products Industry Development Forum. Despite the name, the forum was squarely focused on toys, audio-video products and books of a sexual nature.

Also of note was a collection of about 260 sexual artifacts — some up to 9,000 years old — from a private Chinese sex museum.