Socialist Sex: The Cultural Revolution Revisited
Author(s): Emily Honig
Source: Modern China, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Apr., 2003), pp. 143-175
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Socialist Sex
The Cultural Revolution Revisited
EMILYHONIG
Universityof California,Santa Cruz
The discussion of sex, Chinese and Westernscholarshipsuggests,
is emblematicof the seemingly absolutedistinctionbetween the CulturalRevolution(1966-1976) andthe subsequentpost-Mao/economic
reformperiod.Duringthe Maoist CulturalRevolution,when politics
was in command,to discuss any aspectof personallife, romanticrelationships,or sex was consideredbourgeoisandhence taboo.Throughout the morerecentdecades,however,sex-how to do it, with whom it
is appropriate,at whatage it is acceptable-has explodedas one of the
majortopics of public debateand is featuredas the subjectof fiction,
films, newspaperand magazine articles,and scholarlyresearch.Personal testimonies and memoirs, filled during the Maoist years with
chroniclesof politicalconsciousnessandstruggle,havebecome more
reflectiveabouttheirauthors'romanticandsexualhistories.This shift
has produced, ironically, a sexing of the CulturalRevolution-an
insertion of sexual discussion, practice, and preoccupationinto the
historyof a periodlong presumedto havebeen dominatedby political
concerns.
CulturalRevolutionmemoirs of the past decade (a minor cottage
industryin their own right) have startledreadersby theiroften frank
reflections about sex and sexuality. Anchee Min's autobiographical
accountRedAzalea, for example, describesthe residentsof Red Fire
Farm as being far more concerned with the pursuitof romanticand
sexual pleasurethan with political struggle (Min, 1994: 58-59). Rae
AUTHOR'SNOTE:I wouldlike to thankGail Hershatterand ElizabethPerryfor theircritical
readings of earlier versions of this essay. I am particularly grateful to Kay Ann Johnsonfor
insightfulcommentson the gendereddimensionsof sexualityduring the CulturalRevolution.
MODERN
CHINA,Vol.29 No. 2, April2003 143-175
DOI:10.1177/0097700402250735
? 2003SagePublications
143
144 MODERNCHINA/APRIL 2003
Yang'sSpiderEaters,too, offers memoriesof an adolescencespentin
the Great NorthernWilderness,where the struggles of the Cultural
Revolutionwere interspersedwith her emergingsense of herself and
herclassmatesas sexualbeings (R. Yang, 1997). Likewise,Blood Red
Sunset,Ma Bo's accountof life as a sent-downyouthin InnerMongolia, is punctuatedby reflections on his romanticliaisons and sexual
fantasies as well as the clandestineaffairsof others (Ma Bo, 1996).'
Not all memoirsare so positive in theirreflectionson CulturalRevolution sexuality.Reporton Loveand Sex among China'sSent-Down
Youth,a three-volumeworkpublishedin 1998, aims to documentthe
more tragic dimensions of sexuality and to present stories of severe
sexual repression."Wewere robbedof our youth, ideas, hopes, and
love,"the editorslament."Intermsof love, people were criticizedand
struggled against, put in jail .... All books about love were labeled
pornographic,all songs aboutlove labeledlow-class. Men andwomen
in love were consideredhoodlums"(Zhang Dening and Yue Jianyi,
1998a: 2). Even in detailing horrificpunishmentsinflicted on youth
accused of inappropriateromanticrelationships,however, the hundred-oddmemoirsinsertandimplicitlyinsist on sexualpreoccupation
as being at the centerof experiencesof the CulturalRevolution.
It is temptingto interpretthese reflectionson CulturalRevolution
sexuality as a rewritingof events as viewed throughthe lens of contemporaryconcerns,as a projectiononto the pastof the post-Maopreoccupationwith sex, romanticism,and erotics.2These memoirs, like
all memoir literature,surely do representthe past throughthe concerns of their authors'present,and it is hardlycoincidentalthat individualswritingduringa time of intensepublic discussionof sexuality
would highlightthatpartof theirexperience.However,to reducethe
emphasis on sexualityto a projectionof the presentonto the past, or
even to a writingof the pastas skewedby the terms,language,andpassions of the present,presumesa totaldisjuncturebetweenthe Cultural
Revolutionandthe post-Maoperiod:it takesfor grantedthatwhatprevails now did not and could not have existed then-that just as fervently as sexualissues arediscussedin the present,they were silenced
in the past.
Economic, political, and even many social policies of the reform
era do radicallydepartfrom and in some ways explicitly reject Cultural Revolution policies. But the current denunciation of Maoist
Honig / SOCIALISTSEX 145
policies may obscureunderlyingsocial continuities.I do not mean to
suggest thatthereis statepolicy, on one hand,andsocial reality,on the
other;the state made discussion of love and sex taboo, but in reality
sex was discussed and performedin contexts not sanctionedby the
state.Nor am I suggestingthatdiscussionsof sexualityduringthe CulturalRevolutionandpost-Maoera areidentical.Rather,my pointis to
examinethe specific contextsin which sexualitybecamean issue during the CulturalRevolution and to acknowledgethat the reflections
aboutsexualityin contemporarymemoirsmay be morethana projection of the presentonto the past.
This article,then,aims to offer a preliminaryexplorationof sexuality duringthe CulturalRevolution.Despite the proliferationof new,
revisionist studies of the CulturalRevolution by both Chinese and
Westernscholars,the subjectof sexuality-and personallife in general-has been completely ignored, an oversightthatreplicates,perhaps unwittingly,the presumedrepressionof personallife duringthe
CulturalRevolutionitself (Joseph,Wong,andZweig, 1991;Perryand
Li, 1997; YanJiaqiand Gao Gao, 1996). As materialsaboutthe Cultural Revolution increasingly become available-not just memoirs
but also archivalmaterialsand collections of documents-they are
revealingthe varietyof niches in which sexualitywas partof the life of
the CulturalRevolution.They also suggest the gendereddimensions
of sexuality,the divergentways in which men and women perceived
sexual issues and experience.What emerges from these materialsis
not a simple storyof statesilencing andpopularsubmissionor of state
prohibitionandpopularresistance.State"policy"aboutsex duringthe
CulturalRevolutionis farfromclear,andpopularattitudesandbehavior are full of contradictions.
STATESILENCEAND THESILENCINGOF SEXUALDISCOURSE
The Maoist state, it is commonly assumed, actively silenced discussion of personallife in general and of sexuality most particularly.
"Whatoften got erased,"MayfairYang asserts,
werenotonlywomen'sbodiesandfemalegenderbutalsosexualdesire
itself,througha combinedprocessof repressionandanemptyingout
146 MODERNCHINA/APRIL 2003
of public discourse on sex.... There was a dearthof both public and
privatediscussion of sex during the CulturalRevolution. [M. Yang,
1999: 44]
The historianHarrietEvans's study of sexuality in post-1949 China
persuasively challenges this assumption by documenting the farrangingdiscussion of sexual issues thattook place in official publications duringthe 1950s andearly 1960s (Evans, 1997:2). Nevertheless,
even her study presentsus with the CulturalRevolutionas the single
period when the Chinese government suppressed this discussion.
From 1966 to 1976, Evans writes,
The slightestsuggestionof sexual interestwas consideredso ideologically unsoundthatgenderedtastes in hairstyleanddress were coerced
into a monotonous uniformity of shape and colour. A kind of
androgyny,a sexual sameness, based on the defeminizationof female
appearanceand its approximationto male standardsof dress, seemed
to be the socialist ideal. [Evans, 1997: 2]
The state,presumably,was responsiblefor this explicit andaggressive
policing of sexuality.
Any analysisof sexualityduringthe CulturalRevolutionrequiresa
closer look at the state and its role in governingsexual discourseand
prescribingacceptable (and unacceptable)behavior.What emerges
from such an analysisis a statethatsaid remarkablylittle aboutsexuality while appearingto criticize, arrest,and punish individualsfor
transgressingsexual norms.
Issues of sexuality were not placed high (if anywhere)on the Cultural Revolution's agenda, and state policies and proclamationsdid
not generally concern themselves with issues of sexuality.The state
did, however,withdrawfromits own earlier-albeit limited-participationin a discussionof sexuality.So, for example,government-sanctioned booklets and manualsaboutfemale hygiene, maritalrelations,
and sexual health, which had some circulationduringthe 1950s and
early 1960s, were no longer published(Evans, 1997: 441-44).3
Perhapsmore noticeableto the readingpublic was the elimination
of romanticrelationshipsfrom official reportsand stories and their
transformationinto asexual comradely associations. Thus, in the
model operas,the maincharacterswere invariablysingle, or else their
Honig / SOCIALISTSEX 147
marital status remained unclear.When male and female characters
were together,they spoke only of work,the revolution,or class struggle, and they referredto each other as "comrades"(Bai Ge, 1993:
227).4
The authorDong Landi,a sixth-gradeprimaryschool studentwhen
the CulturalRevolutionbeganin 1966, recalls the firsttime she heard
people describeJiangQing as ChairmanMao's wife. Certainthis was
a rumorfabricatedby the "uneducatedmasses,"she searchedall official publicationsfor evidence of a husband-wiferelationshipbetween
them. All she could find was the frequentstatementthat "Comrade
JiangQing is the close comrade-in-armsof the greatleaderChairman
Mao" (YangJian, 1993: 325). In otherwords,it appearsthatthe state
silenced sexualitynot by issuing laws prohibitingit but by becoming
silent itself.
That this was not a neutralsilence was made clear by the punishmentof those who failed to honorit. Althoughthereis no evidenceof a
law prohibitingthe publicationof certaincategoriesof texts, publishers understood that manuscriptsabout romantic or sexual themes
could not be published.Authors,for the most part,did not writeabout
love or sex, except for those who wrotethe unpublished"hand-copied
volumes" (shou chaoben) that were widely circulatedclandestinely.
But to writestoriesthattouchedon themesof love andsex, even under
a pseudonym,was risky.Forexample,ZhangYang,authorof the wellknownhand-copiedstory"TheSecond Handshake,"was arrestedand
imprisoned in 1975 for "opposing ChairmanMao's revolutionary
line." Although Zhang had strategically prefaced this story of a
romanticliaison between two intellectualswith a quote from Engels
honoringthe long historyof romanticrelationships,YaoWenyuan-a
member of the Gang of Four-spearheaded an extensive search to
identify and arrestthis authorguilty of propagatingthe "conceptof
bourgeoislove" (Liu Xiaomenget al., 1995:619-25; YangJian, 1993:
327).
Even if the stateexpressedlittle explicitly regardingissues of sexuality, local, popularconstructionsof statepolicy in generaland of the
CulturalRevolution agenda more specifically did make sex a major
issue. This concern is evident first in the context of the Red Guard
movement.One of the official goals of the early CulturalRevolution
was the eliminationof "thefour olds":old thought,culture,customs,
148 MODERNCHINA/APRIL2003
andpractices.Althoughan attackon "oldculture"mighthavetargeted
ideologies such as female chastity,it instead focused on "bourgeois
ideology and culture."As Kay Ann Johnsonpoints out, many of the
ideals of the "original'antifeudal'culturalrevolution"associatedwith
the May FourthMovementof the earlytwentiethcentury"becametargets of attackas manifestationsof 'bourgeoisideology' " (Johnson,
1987: 179).
Hence, when Red Guardsat the No. 2 Middle School of Beijing
posted theirinfluential"Declarationof Waron the Old World"on 19
August 1966, they concentratedon eliminating decadent capitalist
practices, particularlythose associated with Hong Kong. "We must
eradicatethe warm bed and young buds of capitalism,"declaredthe
Red Guards,whose textrepeatedlycalled for the destructionof pornographicliterature.
We proposeto the revolutionaryworkersin suchprofessionsas barbering, tailoring,andphotographynotto do Hong Kong-stylehaircuts,not
to tailorHong Kong-styleclothing,not to shoot luridphotographs,and
not to sell pornographicpublications.... We want to, in the shortest
time possible, eliminateHong Kong-styleclothing, shave off strangelooking hair styles, and burn pornographic books and pictures.
[Quotedin YanJiaqi and Gao Gao, 1996: 65-66]
Likewise, Red Guardsat the Beijing No. 26 Middle School, in their
"One HundredItems for Destroying the Old and Establishing the
New," commanded bookstores to "immediatelydestroy all pornographicchildren'sbooks"andforbadethe "tellingof dirtyjokes, uttering profanities, and doing vulgar things" (Schoenhals, 1996: 216,
220). Whatever the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership's
originalintent,then,the Red Guards'constructionsof the campaignto
destroythe "fourolds"highlightedpornographyas emblematicof the
"decadentcapitalistculture"that must be destroyed.
As the CulturalRevolutiondeveloped and as class enemies were
identified, sexual immorality became one of the most commonly
invoked"errors"for which they were attacked.The ways in which the
accusation of sexual immorality (often signaled by the appellation
"brokenshoe,"or "whore")was invokedto legitimize broaderpolitical attacks,usually againstindividualwomen, are describedin some
Honig /SOCIALISTSEX 149
detailby Neil Diamant(2000:281-312) in Revolutionizingthe Family.
Attacks on prominentwomen ranging from Wang Guangmei (Liu
Shaoqi's wife) to JiangQing and Nie Yuanzi(the Partybranchsecretaryof the PhilosophyDepartmentat Beijing University,whose character poster launched the CulturalRevolution) all included accusations of inappropriatesexual liaisons andbehaviors(Ling, 1972: 198214; Zhai, 1992: 126; Schoenhals, 1996: 102-9; Yue and Wakeman,
1985: 207).
At a popular level as well, political attacks on individuals were
often framedby the charge of sexual immorality.Zhang Zhimei, for
example, was accused of having been a spy because she maintained
relationshipswith people she knew in EastBerlin,whereshe hadbeen
assigned in 1951 as partof a tradedelegation.In the earliestcriticism
sessions of the CulturalRevolution,however,she was firstaccusedof
sexualimmorality."You'reanimmoralwoman,a fox spirit!"a student
yelled at her. "How many men have you had? Tell us everything!
You'vecorruptedpartycadres,andnow you've got yourhandson one
of the revolutionaryteachers."The studentsthen whippedher.One of
her own formerstudentsled her away from anothercriticism session
butthendemanded,"Doyou acceptthatyou areanimmoralwoman?"
He then began trying to kiss her (Zhang, 1992: 143-46). Although
later forced to confess to having had a romance shortly after being
divorced, she was grateful to be spared the humiliation of being
paradedthroughthe streets with a string of worn shoes aroundher
neck (literallydisplayinga euphemismfor a "loose woman"),a punishmentthatshe saw inflicted on many women accusedof extramarital sex (Zhang, 1992: 162).
The label whore became one of the most frequentlyused against
women. In her accountof the Red Guardmovementin Shanghai,Ziping Luo describesan attackon two "spinsters"andtheir80-year-old
mother:"Theykicked and spaton the women whom they shouldhave
revered as grandmothers.Instead, they shouted 'Whores!'" (Luo,
1990:27-28). JinYihong,recallingthe activitiesof young Red Guards
at the famedMiddle School for Girlsin Beijing, relatedthe frequency
with which they capturedyoung women "hoodlums,"broughtthemto
the school for beatings, and hurled at them the accusation "loose
woman"or "whore."She describedas well the lengths to which students went to constructevidence thata particularteacherwhom they
150 MODERNCHINA/APRIL 2003
attackedhad been havingan extramaritalaffairwith a male teacherat
the school (Jin Yihong, interviewwith author,Nanjing, 1996).
In all of these accounts, Red Guardswere the ones who invoked
sexual "errors"as partof broaderpolitical attackson "classenemies."
It is difficult to determine whether they were responding to state
injunctions or instead played an independent role in establishing
codes of propersexual conduct. Neil Diamantarguesthat a concern
with sexual purity,particularlythe sexual morality of women, has
been a common featureof youth and nationalistmovements,including the French Revolution and the Nazi movement in Germany
(Diamant,2000: 285). The invocationof sexual moralityto discredit
opponentshas precedentsin the history of the Chinese revolutionas
well: Nationalists used this approachto assail Communist women
leaderssuchas XiangJingyu,andlaterthe CCPdid the samein attacking alleged rightists, such as Ding Ling (Gilmartin, 1995: 211-12;
Ding Ling, 1989: 43).
But comparativeand historicalprecedentsdo not explain the specific causes of these particularallegations. Any explanationof why
the Red Guardsaccused women of sexual immoralityhas to consider
the broadersocial and political context in which the charges were
made. One must wonder whether campaigns of the early 1960s
againstbourgeoisculture,as well as the specific criticismsof "decadent"and"promiscuous"women in the film EarlySpringin February
(Zaochun eryue) screened in late 1965 and early 1966, instilled in
young people the idea of attackingwomen as "whores."5In addition,
as the discussion below will illustrate, the accusations of sexual
immoralitydirectedat female "classenemies"were articulatedatprecisely the same time that "revolutionary"female Red Guards,free
from parentalcontrol and protection and free to travel throughout
China, on one hand, were able to engage in sexual experimentation
and,on the otherhand,were vulnerableto extraordinarylevels of sexual abuse.In otherwords,while some groupsof women were subject
to molestation, others were implicitly held responsible for sexual
morality.Whetherthere is a connectionbetween these two phenomena requiresfurtherresearch.
Even if a quest by the Red Guardsfor sexual purityexplains some
of the attackson allegedlyimmoralsexualliaisons, it does not account
Honig /SOCIALISTSEX 151
for the full range of those that occurredduringthe CulturalRevolution. Throughoutthese accounts, the line between popularcodes of
moralityand state regulationis blurry:while little evidence exists of
laws or policies issued or imposed by the centralgovernment,there
are myriad instances of local governmentagents propagatingtheir
own, often informal, policies and arrestingor punishing those who
violated them.
Forexample,cadresin urbanworkunitsfrequentlypunishedworkers who engaged in nonmaritalromanticrelationships.In one such
case, a female factory workerwho had been selected (based on her
excellentjob performance)to be trainedas a nurseat the local hospital
befriendeda male medical student.The hospitalleadershipinstructed
her thatromancewas forbiddenand eventuallyaccusedher of having
an affair.The woman lost her chance to become a nurseand was sent
backto heroriginalfactory,whereshe was assignedthe least desirable
job. Fromthen on, only "hoodlumtypes"would talk to her (Li Yinhe,
1998: 30). At another urban factory, the Party secretarycalled an
assembly to criticize four young, unmarriedpeople for romanticliaisons. They were not accused of having violated any specific regulations; rather,the cadre claimed that love would interferewith their
work andcould underminethe state'spolicy of encouraginglate marriage (Bai Ge, 1993: 277).
Accounts of punishmentfor "inappropriate"
romantic or sexual
relationsmost frequentlyconcernsent-downyouth.They usuallydisplay a combinationof "unwrittenrules"prohibitinglove andpopular
censure of those who did fall in love. One of the most detailed
accounts featuresthe story of a young woman, Xiao Qing, sent to a
state farmin 1968. There she was very well liked for her hardwork,
warmth,and generosity, and she eventually became the company's
political instructor."Atthat time there was an unwrittenrule on the
state farm,"she recalled."Smokingwas prohibitedand love was prohibited.At everymeeting,largeandsmall, the leadershipremindedus
of these prohibitionsand warnedus."Nonetheless, she and the company leader, Xiao Gang, fell in love. During Spring Festival, when
most of the educatedyouth had returnedto Shanghai,they got drunk
and "let things get out of control."A monthlater,Xiao Qing realized
she was pregnant.Her boyfriend wrote to his parentsin Shanghai,
152 MODERNCHINA/APRIL 2003
askingthemto help arrangefor an abortionthere.Unfortunately,their
response(marked"urgent")was opened andreadby the local leadership,which issued "threepoints"for handlingthe situation:Xiao Qing
wouldnot be permittedto havethe abortionin Shanghai,she andXiao
Gang would be the focus of a special "revolutionarycriticism meeting,"andbothwouldbe removedfromtheirpositionsandsentto labor
in the fields to reformtheirthinking.
On the day of her abortion,the statefarmleadershipstipulatedthat
no one could accompanyher,andthe only way for herto get to the hospital-100 li fromthe statefarm-was by ridingin the back of a fully
loadedtruck.When she returnedshe was allowedto restfor one week,
but no one was permittedto bring her special foods. Another girl
"couldn'tstandit any more"andbroughtXiao Qing noodles fromthe
cafeteria.The girl was then criticized for "havingsympathizedwith
the 'winds of bourgeoisthought,'of not being able to distinguishright
from wrong, or to draw a clear line between herself and her classmate."A week afterthe abortion,the statefarmorganizeda majorcriticism session: all the men gatheredin one group to criticize Xiao
Gang, while the women formedanothergroupto criticize Xiao Qing.
They focused on the couple's "corruptbourgeoistrend,"their"bankrupt morality,"their "hoodlum-liketendencies,"and their "pornographicthinking."The two were then sent to separatecompaniesand
not allowed to have any contact with each other.Finally, when educated youth began to have opportunitiesto returnto the city, their
"error"made Xiao Qing and Xiao Gang ineligible (Jin Yonghua,
1995: 77-79).
Another account describes two educated youth who fell in love.
The armyunitto which they hadbeen assignedhadan "unwrittenregulation"that sexual relationsbetween educatedyouth would be punished by the denialof a "familyvisit vacation."Xiao Wang,the young
woman, became pregnant. Fearful of losing her only chance of
remainingconnectedto her family in the city, she desperatelytriedto
conceal the pregnancyby engaging in physically arduouslabor and
tying a piece of cloth aroundher waist. Meanwhile,one of her classmates, who was the work team's health worker,realized what was
happeningand offered to help Xiao Wang give birth clandestinely.
Ultimately,however,Xiao Wang gave birthby herself, wrappedthe
Honig / SOCIALISTSEX 153
newbornboy in green army cloth, and placed the "package"in the
river.Whenit was discoveredby a local child, PublicSecurityofficials
came to investigate.Xiao Wangandher boyfriendwere both accused
of murderingan infant (JiangRenwen, 1991). In yet anothercase, a
young woman sent to the Northeastfell in love with a "handsome
intellectual"from Shanghai.One evening, strollingby the river,they
"embracedandhad sex in the grass."She becamepregnant,buthe had
meanwhilefallen in love with anothersent-downyouth andrefusedto
get married.When the child was born, she gave it to a local peasant
family. However,both she and the young man were "severelycriticized" (Liu Yida, 1994-1995: 69).
None of these accounts contains any referenceto laws or policies
prohibiting romantic or sexual relations among sent-down youth.
Instead,they all describe "informal"or "unwritten"rules and a local
leadership-from rural state farms to urbanfactories-that had the
authorityto punishindividualswho engagedin suchrelationships.For
many people, though, it was not punishmentby cadres for romantic
liaisons thatwas most damagingbutratherthe censureby colleagues,
classmates, or friends. One young woman recalled receiving a love
letter from a male classmate after she had returnedto middle school
from several years in the countryside."I can never forget your big
eyes," he wrote. "I'll always think of you." Not realizing there was
anythingproblematicaboutthese sentiments,she discussedthemwith
a classmate. Almost immediately,it seemed, the entire school knew
the contents of the letter. "No one would pay attentionto me after
that,"she recalled. "Theywould spit on my desk, or write 'big hoodlum' with chalk, and puncturemy bike tires" (Li Yinhe, 1998: 31).
Likewise, Jung Chang, in her memoir WildSwans, recalls a fifteenyear-oldclassmate who had become pregnantwhile travelingwith a
groupof Red Guardsat the beginningof the CulturalRevolution."She
was beatenby her father,followed by the accusing eyes of the neighbors, and enthusiastically gossiped about by her comrades. She
hangedherself, leaving a note saying she was 'too ashamedto live.' "
Describingthe "militantpuritans"of the CulturalRevolution,Chang
also tells of a female classmate who received a love letter from a
sixteen-year-oldboy. She wroteback,calling him a "traitorto the revolution":"Howdareyou thinkaboutsuch shamelessthings when the
154 MODERNCHINA/APRIL2003
class enemies are still rampantand people in the capitalistworld still
live in an abyss of misery!"(Chang,1991: 316-18). And a womansent
to a tea plantationin Zhejiangrecalled how she and other educated
youth would hang a broken shoe from the bed of a woman in their
dormroom who went out to have sex at night (Yao Yongzheng,interview with author,Shanghai, 1999).
Takentogether,all of these phenomena-the removalof romantic
or sexual referencesfrom official publications;the imprisonmentof
individualauthorswho clandestinelywrote about such subjects;the
criticismsessions, punishments,andpopularcensureto which people
who engaged in nonmaritalsexual relationswere subjected;and the
allegation of sexual "immorality"against "class enemies"-suggest
that the CulturalRevolution was indeed an era of extreme sexual
repression.Yet this image must be qualifiedin severalways.
First,insofaras thereis a story of repressionto be told, the role of
the stateis not altogetherobvious.This was not a statethatissued declarations prohibiting nonmaritalromantic or sexual relationships;
even when the leadersof factoriesor statefarmspunishedindividuals,
the punishmentwas most often for the violationof "unwritten"rules.
To the extentthatthe stateplayed a role in "silencingsexuality,"it did
so throughits own silence, which must have spokenvolumes to local
leaders and ordinarycitizens. That silence certainlyregisteredwith
the Red Guards,who fromthe outset of the CulturalRevolutionmade
"immoralbehavior"one of the most significantcrimes for which one
could be attacked.
The emphasison immoralityis relatedto the second way in which
the image of the CulturalRevolution as a period of severe sexual
repressionmustbe revised.It would be moreappropriateto describeit
as a periodcharacterizedby a profoundconflationof politicalandsexual impurity.Finally,althoughaccountsof individualsbeing punished
for the transgressionof rigid sexual "norms"reinforcepopularconceptions of the CulturalRevolution,they by no means representthe
entire history of sexuality duringthe period. To furtherexplore that
history, we must move away from a focus on the state and sites of
repressionandlook insteadat how sexualitywas woven into the daily
life of the CulturalRevolution in ways that were distinctive to and
enmeshed in its political and social movements.
Honig /SOCIALISTSEX 155
SEX
SOCIALIST
Foryoung people in particular,the CulturalRevolutionrepresented
a time of dislocationfromparentalcontrolandprotection,particularly
with respect to sexuality (Young, 1989: 239-40). During its earliest
phases, Red GuardstraveledthroughoutChina to "exchangerevolutionaryexperiences."Long traintrips, one woman recalls, provided
opportunitiesfor teenagers to experience love and sex in ways that
would previously have been inconceivable (Liu Bohong, interview
with author,SantaCruz,CA, 1997). As one of the aboveaccountssuggests, it was not unheardof for young women to returnfromtheirtravels acrossChinapregnantaftersexualencountersthatwere sometimes
desired and, presumably,sometimes not (Chang, 1991: 316-18).
Forurbanyouth,however,it was the years spentin the countryside
that representedthe most importantcontext for sexual encounters,
experimentation,andabuse.No studiesof the sent-downyouthmovementfocus on issues of sexuality(orpersonallife moregenerally)(see
Bernstein, 1977). In Women,the Family,and Peasant Revolutionin
China, Kay Ann Johnson describes the experience of living in the
countrysideas being sexually constrainingand repressivefor urban
youth,as the "traditionallyconservativevillage moralityof theirpeasant hosts was coupled with the stringentultra-leftistoutlook."The
resultwas that"theywere afraidto talk in public with membersof the
opposite sex unless theirwork requiredit" (Johnson, 1987: 183).
Interviewsand personalmemoirsprovidea very differentview of
how sent-downyouth perceivedand experienced"peasantmorality."
One accountdescribes a sixteen-year-oldgirl, WangYuanyuan,sent
to InnerMongolia.
Once afterworkshe was lagging behindandsaw somethingby the side
of the ditch. She snuck up and noticed that it was a man and woman
"doingit."At thattime the class strugglewas very intense, so she earnestly reportedthis affair to the productionbrigade leader. The old
peasants,though, didn't treatit as anythingandjust laughed. [Zhang
Dening and Yue Jianyi, 1998b:95]
A numberof women complainedabout the difficulty adjustingto
the discussion and display of sexuality among their peasant hosts,
156 MODERNCHINA/APRIL 2003
which was far more open thananythingthey had ever encounteredin
the more cautious and restrainedatmosphereof the cities. As Liu
Liliang, a young woman sent from Nanjingto a work team in Lishui
(Jiangsu),recalled,
Some of the peasants' customs were hard for us to get used to. For
example, when it was hot, women wouldn't wear any clothes on top
(except unmarriedwomen wore a cloth over their breasts).And men
didn'twearanyclothes at all-not even pants.We couldn'tstandit. We
finally went andtalkedto the brigadeleaderbecause it was hardfor us
to workwith those men. The brigadeleadermadethe men wear something aroundtheir waists. At first they didn't like it, but because of us
sent-downyouth, they had no choice.
Urban youth like herself, fearful of the sun, covered themselves in
long pants, long-sleeved shirts,and hats (Liu Liliang, interviewwith
author,Nanjing, 1997).
Jin Yihong, who grew up in Beijing, told of a similar situationin
Hainandao,whereshe hadbeen sent for seven years.On one hand,she
described how horrifiedpeasants would be when female educated
youth appearedin bathingsuits to swim. To them, wearinga bathing
suitwas equivalentto nudity.On the otherhand,she recountedthe difficulty sent-downyouth experiencedin adjustingto the local customs
of dress:women often wore no clothingabovetheirwaist when working, andin some places peasantmen did not wearany pantsto workin
the rice fields. For entertainmentas they labored, peasant women
sometimes ganged up to strip a particularman, while both men and
women brokethe monotonyof workby telling "dirtyjokes aboutsex
all the time"-practices that initially horrifiedsent-downyouth (Jin
Yihong, interview,1996). One young man, sent to the countrysidein
northernJiangsuas an adolescent,recalls peasantwomen visiting his
roomat nightandofferingto have sex with him. At first,havinghadno
previoussex education,he was perplexedby theirinvitations,but several monthsof listening to peasantsbanterandjoke aboutsex helped
him graduallyunderstand.
For a numberof urbanyouth, years spent in the countrysideprovided their first, albeit informal and haphazard,sex education.One
accountdescribesseveraladolescentgirls sent to the countrysidewho
one day saw two donkeysrollingaroundwith each otherandmakinga
Honig /SOCIALISTSEX 157
lot of noise. Knowingnothingaboutmating,they were perplexedand
immediately asked some older peasants to explain this seemingly
strangebehavior.The peasantsall laughedbut said nothing.The girls
demanded an answer, until finally one elderly peasant man said,
"They have fulfilled their marriage!"The peasants could not stop
laughing,until at last the girls figuredit out (WuJiaoping, 1999: 27879).
A final source of sexual knowledge for sent-downyouth was literary.Althoughno official publicationsdiscussedromanceor sex, a prolific and widely circulatedundergroundliteraturedeveloped during
the CulturalRevolution,consisting largely of hand-copiedvolumes.
These stories, literally copied by hand into notebooks and surreptitiously passed among friends, were extremely popularamong sentdownyouth-the most popularbeing storiesthatfocusedpreciselyon
themes of love, romance,and sex. Some hand-copiedvolumes were
actuallyversionsof pre-1949 publicationsthathad been bannedafter
Liberation.Talide niiren(Womanin the tower),for example,hadbeen
writtenin 1944 and was then bannedin the early 1950s. During the
CulturalRevolution,groupsof sent-downyouth,fearfulthatthe book
would become "extinct,"copied it into notebooksfor circulation.One
young woman reportedly organized twelve young people in her
fiancee's attic and divided them into groups to copy the book
(Wumingshi,1984: 1-6; YangJian, 1993: 334).
More often, hand-copiedvolumes containedstorieswrittenduring
the CulturalRevolution. One of the most widely read, "A Maiden's
Heart"("Shaoniide xin"),chronicledthe love betweena sixteen-yearold beauty and her strong, handsomecousin, describingtheir rather
wild sexual frolickingin vivid detail. After many scenes in which the
young woman is overwhelmedby the "purepleasureof the act,"the
story finally ends with a homily about the bliss and harmlessnessof
premaritalsex (hardlya theme one associates with CulturalRevolution literature).In anotherhand-copiedstory,"SisterXia"("AXia"),a
young woman, upon learningthather boyfriendhas been unfaithful,
decides that women, too, should be entitled to multiple lovers. She
proceedsto have an affairwith the Partysecretaryof her factory,who
she learns has been sleeping with all the attractivewomen workers.
She thenharborsthe fantasyof becoming a Partysecretaryherself, so
that she could seduce any of the handsomemale workersshe desired
158 MODERNCHINA/APRIL 2003
(Link, 1989: 17-36). Accordingto some reports,a sizable numberof
sent-downyouth, after readingthese and other hand-copiedstories,
"mademistakes"(i.e., had sex). One tells the storyof a young woman
who, after reading "A Maiden's Heart,"had sex with a boy but was
horriblydisappointedthat it was nowherenear as pleasurableas the
story had portrayed(YangJian, 1993: 326-36).
For many sent-down youth, life in the countrysideprovided not
only theirfirstknowledgeof sex butopportunitiesfor theirfirstsexual
experiences as well. Undoubtedly,there were instances or locales,
such as those cited above,wheresent-downyouthfelt thatanyexpression of romantic or sexual interest between unmarriedmen and
women was prohibited,repressed,or likely to be punished.But there
were also manyinstancesin which life on a productionbrigadeor state
farm-where tens to hundredsof young men andwomen in theirteens
or early twenties lived collectively, away from their families-provided unusually favorableconditions for sexual encountersoutside
the context of marriage. And even when cadres tried to prohibit
romanticrelationships,they were not always successful. At one state
farm, where the leader was described as a "feudalbureaucrat"who
spied on boys and girls gatherednear the bridge at night, sent-down
youth inventeda secret path, referredto as the "Ho Chi-minhtrail,"
whereromanticcouples could secureprivacy(ZhangDening andYue
Jianyi, 1998c: 90).
Foreducatedyouth,life in the countrysidewas punctuatedby flirtation and sex. Fromthe perspectiveof young men, negotiationsabout
sex andromancewere crucialto enliveningan otherwisedrearyexistence. A young man assignedto a productionbrigadeof Xilong Communein Sichuanrecalledthateducatedyouthcommonlysaton a table
near the commune store, where they smoked and discussed women:
they crackedjokes aboutpeasantwomen andevaluatedthe featuresof
all the girls on the productionbrigade,assigning each points for her
respectivemerits(He Shiping, 1992:4-5). Youthassignedto the army
corps could not always count on the presence of women. As the
authorsof a historyof the People's LiberationArmy-sponsored"productionand constructioncorps"note, "Life was dull, work was arduous, andpeople neededsome spiritualspark.'Whenboys andgirls are
together, working is like lifting a feather' (nanni dapei, hanhuo
bulei)." They point out that the leader of a Heilongjiang regiment
Honig / SOCIALISTSEX 159
reportedthatthe sent-downyouth complainedaboutthe absence of a
female brigade."If a team of women could be transferredhere,"the
young men pleaded, "we could tolerate being here the rest of our
lives."The sympatheticleadersubsequentlyarrangedto have a group
of female educatedyouth sent to this single-sex brigade."Theimpact
of the girls was immeasurable,"the leader reported."Fromthe time
the girls arrivedthere was much less gambling and drinking, less
swearing;morecarefuldressing;moretime spentcraftinglove letters.
Guys who had hardlybathed now began to use fragrantsoap; guys
who never read now began studying vocabularyfrom books" (Shi
Weiminand He Gang, 1996: 270-71).
Storiesby girls sent to the countrysidecorrespondto this portraitof
male youth who made a sport of seeking female companionship.A
girl bornin Beijing andsent to the countrysideat the age of fifteen, for
example, describedhow as soon as she arrived,boys who had been
sent the previousyear "beganto chase afterme."
Thoseolderschool-leavers
weregoodto me.WhenI wenthometo see
myfamily,theyhelpedmebuytheticket,gota seatforme,carriedmy
luggage.... Theydideverything.
Why?Justso thattheycouldseea bit
moreof me. Theylikedto get a seatbesideme so thatwhenthe bus
wentovera bumpthey'dbe ableto leanagainstme.
Vying for her attention,these "olderboys" often broughther chicken
or dog meatthatthey stole frompeasantsandthencooked.Eventually,
she became attachedto one boy in particular.He had brokenhis foot
while theirteam was tryingto "remouldthe commune'sland"as part
of the movementto "learnfrom Dazhai."Feeling sorryfor him, she
would take him food and chat with him.
I can'tsayhowit happened.
I don'tknowhowhehadtheface.Butanyhe
and
I
way, asked,
gavemyself.I wassixteenyearsold.I usedtothink
thatit wouldbe somethingveryimportant-whenit happened,
I found
that it was nothing at all. I was a girl beforehand,and when I got up I
was still the same girl. I hadn'tturnedinto a grownwoman.But all the
afterthat.Therewasnothing
feelingI'dhadforthatboy disappeared
left. I waited anxiously for my period because I was afraidI might be
pregnant.I didn't feel very pleased with myself but I didn'tfeel guilty
either.I hadn'treallylikedthe boy, it wasjust curiosityandconfusion.I
160 MODERNCHINA/APRIL 2003
couldn't help it. I never thought that we would get married.[Zhang
Xinxin and Sang Yue, 1987: 317-18]
Some women not only hadtheirfirstsexualencountersbutalso cohabitedwith young men, a practicethat would have been unimaginable in the cities andthatapparentlywas often ignoredby cadresin the
countryside.A daughterof Beijing intellectualstells the storyof falling in love with a sent-downyouthfrom Shanghaiduringthe time she
was in the countryside.He was relativelyweak, andas teamleader,she
often helped him. Furthermore,he reminded her of her younger
brother.During the time he returnedto Shanghai for a one-month
"family visit," she realized she was in love with him. When he returned,she rushedto embracehim and then "gavehim her virginity."
Fromthenon, they lived together."Upto today,I haveno regretsabout
this,"she said.
She became pregnant,and despite her efforts to induce a miscarriage, the baby was born. "Luckily,"she recalled, "it was relatively
commonfor unmarriedpeople on the statefarmto give birth.We both
endureddisciplinaryaction withinthe team,butthen ourrelationship
was more open."Sent-downyouth who cohabitedor had babies preferrednot to marry,she explained,for once marriedthey sacrificedthe
possibilityof everreturningto the city.Whenshe was given the opportunityto return,threeyearsafterherdaughter'sbirth,she was issued a
permitonly for herself. She thenrealizedthe impossibilityof the situation: "Withno residence permit,my daughterwould have no legal
status.If I took her back to Beijing she would neverhave a legitimate
life." She, like many others in her situation,gave her daughterto a
local peasantfamily to raise."Iwentbackto Beijing alone. As soon as
I got off the trainI burstout cryingandcouldn'tstop.But I knew,rationally, thatI had to sever myself from thatphase of my life and begin
anew"(Deng Xian, 1992: 106).
Like this woman, others emphasized how common it was for
unmarriedmale andfemale sent-downyouthto live togetherandhow
common it was as well for unmarriedwomen to become pregnant.
Another woman described sleeping with a fellow sent-down youth
andthenliving with him withoutgettingmarried."That'swhatlots of
people did,"she recalled.She, too, becamepregnantandgave birthto
a girl. When her daughterwas 22, the woman had the opportunityto
Honig /SOCIALISTSEX 161
returnto Chongqing.Realizing thather daughterwould have no legal
statusin the city, she decidedto give herto a local family,who actually
paid 200 yuan as a "birthfee" for the young girl (Deng, 1992: 106-7).
WangXiaoling, raisedin Nanjing,recalls thatwhen she was in Inner
Mongolia, an educatedyouthhadan affairwith a local manandbore a
baby girl. Although the young woman soon returnedto Nanjing, the
man'sfamily happilykeptthe baby,for to themit was very gloriousto
have a "Nanjing baby" (Wang Xiaoling, interview with author,
Nanjing, 1997).
Scatteredstatisticssuggest the frequencyof cohabitationandpregnancy:a 1973 investigationof the YunnanProductionand Construction Army Corps showed that in one regimentalone, there were 114
cases of "male-femalerelations,"26 pregnancies,18 abortions,and20
babies born.In anotherregiment, 162 young women had gone to the
hospitalfor abortionsinjust one six-monthperiod.In a thirdregiment,
32 babies were born (Shi Weimin and He Gang, 1996: 278).
The frequencywith which unmarriedsent-downyouth cohabited
andbecamepregnantis also attestedto by the numberof babies abandoned when, in the mid-1970s, massive numbersof educatedyouth
were allowedto returnto the cities. In one case, a young typistrecalled
cleaning up the waiting room of the Kunmingtrain station after the
departureof a largegroupof sent-downyouthanddiscoveringa package undera row of benches. Puzzled that it had no name or address,
she was aboutto putit in the lost andfound.Whenshe pickedit up, she
felt the contentsmove, openedit, andfounda babyinside. Along with
100 yuanwas a note saying, "Kindheartedperson:if you will keep this
child we will be forevergratefulto you. Signed, a pair of bitter-fated
sent-downyouth" (Deng, 1992: 107-8). According to one report,in
Kunmingalone, in 1979 (when educatedyouth were still returningto
cities), close to a hundredabandonedbabies were sent to orphanages
(Deng, 1992: 108).6
It would be misleadingto suggest thatsex was always voluntaryor
desirablefor sent-downyouth. The prevalenceof rape of sent-down
youth, an issue thatfiguresprominentlyin post-MaoChinese writing
aboutthe CulturalRevolution,is beyondthe scope of this article.But
it is importantto highlightthe contextsin which young women sent to
the countrysideexperiencedsex not as an opportunityfor pleasurebut
162 MODERNCHINA/APRIL 2003
ratheras somethingforcedon them,or as one of the few commodities
they had to exchange for privilege.
Post-Maoeraaccountsof the CulturalRevolutiondwell on the rape
of educatedyouthin partas a metaphor-both literaryandpoliticalfor the abuse of power by local officials duringthe CulturalRevolution. They are, therefore,highly melodramaticin their portrayalof
women as the patheticvictims of "perverts"or "sex wolves" who subvertedthe rustificationmovement.Fromone suchreport,we learnthat
a 30-year-oldcadre from Guizhou raped,sexually harassed,and behaved obscenely towardsome 115 educatedyouth at a state farm in
Yunnan;moreover,there were some 365 cases of rape reportedat an
armyunit in Heilongjiangand 247 cases at a unit in InnerMongolia.
Male sent-down youth were vulnerableas well, as the same report
cites the commanderof a troopin Yunnan,"ahusbandandfather,who
used deceit, seduction,andforce to sodomize more thantwenty male
educated youth" (Deng, 1992: 44). Another self-consciously melodramaticaccountemphasizesthe extentto which young women "used
theirflesh in exchange for permissionto leave the countryside."
A female sent-downyouthapatheticallyopenedthe doorof the production team leader'sdoor.One step at a time she slowly entersthe room.
There is food on the table, and the paperworkbearingpermissionfor
her to returnto the city for work.The girl standsthere,her eyes spiritless, like a lambsent to the sacrificialaltar.The productionteamleader
doesn't even close the door or turnoff the flickeringoil lamp. He just
laughs coarsely,rips open the girl's shirt,and shamelesslyfondles her
barely developed breasts. Then he throws her on his sweat-covered
wooden bed. The girl doesn't cry out, for fear that someone will hear.
As soon as she gets up from the bed and puts on her clothes, the team
leaderaffixes his red seal on the papers.[Ba Shan, 1992: 58]
So common was it for women to trade sex for privilege that young
women who returned to the city either to work or attend university or
who had obtained Party membership were assumed to have lost their
virginity in the countryside. It became particularly difficult for these
women to marry.In one case, a woman worker in Shanghai was beaten
by her husband and thrown out of the house on their wedding night
when he discovered she had lost her virginity to the Party secretary of
her former production team (Ba Shan, 1992: 58).
Honig /SOCIALISTSEX 163
Althoughthese exposes arepartof a broaderpost-Maocondemnation of the CulturalRevolution,one in which the rape of women was
deployed to symbolize the sufferingof all Chinese people, the sexual
abuseof women cannotbe reducedto a retrospectiveallegoricalphenomenon:many accountsof rape and sexual abuse were writtenduring the CulturalRevolutionitself. Forexample,a 1973 diaryentryof a
young womanfrom Beijing sent to InnerMongolia describedher initial horrorat the extent to which the nomads with whom she lived
engaged in illicit sexual relations. "But now I have seen that some
highercadresarejust as awful,"she wrote. "Someeven surpassthem
in evil, but are not as public aboutit. Furthermore,people underneath
don't darecriticizethem."She thendescribedthe headof an armyunit
in InnerMongolia who had sex with more than30 female sent-down
youth (Shi Weimin, 1996a:218). Likewise, in a letterto a friendwritten in March 1972, a young woman describesgirls who were the victims of cadresandpolitical instructorswho sexually abusedthem and
warnsher friendto "be careful"(Shi Weimin, 1996b: 159).
In some cases, it was stateofficials who reportedon sexualabuseof
women in the countryside.The Partysecretaryof one companyof the
InnerMongolian Productionand ConstructionArmy Corps wrote a
lettercomplainingthat"thereare some cadreswho use theirpowerto
rapeand damagefemale youth. In our regiment,7 percentof the cadres have done this."His letterwas distributedat a 1973 meetingto discuss problemsof sent-downyouth in InnerMongolia, where abuseof
female sent-downyouth had become a majorconcernof parents(Shi
Weimin, 1996b: 321-22).
Duringthe CulturalRevolution,the Chinesegovernmentitself was
worriedaboutthe sexual abuseof sent-downyouth anddevotedmany
reportsand meetings to investigatingthis problem (Liu Xiaomeng,
1996). In May 1970, a national meeting to discuss the situation of
sent-downyouth produced"Document26," the first policy concerning sent-downyouthpromulgatedby the CentralCommitteesince the
beginning of the CulturalRevolution. Document 26, among other
things, statedthat "anyonewho is guilty of rapingfemale sent-down
youth shall be punishedaccordingto the law. Those who force female
sent-downyouth into marriageshall be subjectto criticismand struggle" (Liu Xiaomeng, 1998: 263-64).7
164 MODERNCHINA/APRIL 2003
The regulationwas immediatelypublicizedon the frontpage of the
People's Daily, and governmentorganizationsat every level were
instructedto carefullylook into the problemsin theirlocale as well as
to organizemeetingsto determinepunishments(LiuXiaomeng, 1998:
165). In Jilin province, for example, between June 1970 and June
1972, 2,080 cases of harmagainstsent-downyouth were revealed.Of
them, 1,839 were "managed";22 people were executed,and508 were
sentencedto jail. The vast majorityof these cases involvedthe rapeof
female sent-downyouth, and most of the offendersturnedout to be
low-level ruralcadres.These "local lords,"the reportstated,believed
that the "maidensfrom the city were theirpersonalplaythings"(Liu
Xiaomeng, 1998: 267). A 1973 reporton sent-downyouth estimated
thatsince 1969, therehadbeen some 16,000 cases of rape.The report
presenteddetailedaccountsof severalcases, includinga discussionof
the problemsencounteredin investigatingthe incidentsandcollecting
evidence (Liu Xiaomeng, 1998: 304).
To be sure,Document26 had some unintendedconsequences.Any
sexual encounterbetween a man and woman might be interpretedas
rape.Forexample,one womanwho hadhad an affairwith a local man
became pregnantand,just at the time thatDocument26 was promulgated, was discovered returningto Beijing to have an abortion.The
man with whom she had had sex was arrestedand put in jail (Zhang
Dening and Yue Jianyi, 1998b: 100). Another sent-down youth
recalled that "when the CentralCommittee'sDocument Number26
was issued, any local personwho had a relationshipwith a sent-down
youth was arrestedand sentenced to 10 to 15 years in jail" (Zhang
Dening and Yue Jianyi, 1998c: 125-27).
It would also be misleadingto assume thatsex was invariablyheterosexual. Little has been written about homosexual relationships
duringthe CulturalRevolution,with few exceptions-Anchee Min's
(1994) fictional autobiographyRedAzalea being the most glaring.In
this account,Anchee, sent to the countrysideduringthe CulturalRevolution, describesthe relationshipdevelopedwith her superior,CommanderYan,with whom she casuallybeganto sharea bunkatnight.
She covered us with blankets.We breathedeach other's breath.She
pulledmy handsto touchherchest. She caressedme, tremblingherself.
She murmuredthatshe wished she could tell me how happyI madeher
Honig /SOCIALISTSEX 165
feel.... I moved my handsslowly throughher shirt.She pulled my fingers to unbuttonher bra.... The momentI touchedher breasts,I felt a
sweet shock. My heartbeatdisorderly.A wild horsebrokeoff its reins.
She whisperedsomethingI could not hear.She was meltingsnow.I did
not know what role I was playing anymore:her imagined man or
myself. I was drawnto her... I was spellboundby desire. I wantedto
be touched.Herhandsskimmedmy breasts.My mindmaddened.... I
begged her to hold me tight.... As I hesitated,she caughtmy lips and
kissed me fervently.[Min, 1994: 128-29]
One could arguethatthe sensationalnatureof this accountwas in
partintendedto satisfy the imaginedinterestsof an English-speaking
audience, to celebrate a site of resistance to Maoist dogma, or, as
Wendy Larsonsuggests (1999), to sexualize the spiritof the revolution. And yet, a self-identifiedChinese lesbianpassionatelydefended
the book to me, applaudingit as the single accountsuggestive of her
own sexual experienceswith women duringthe time she spent in the
Hebei countryside.One of the women interviewedby the sociologist
Li Yinheabouthersexualhistoryexplainedthatherfirstknowledgeof
lesbians came from her time on a state farm,where two female sentdown youth were in love. "Onewas very delicate, like a girl,"she recalled, "andthe other very coarse, like a boy."Othergirls gossiped
abouthow "thosetwo have mated,"how they insisted on sleeping together undera single mosquito net, and how they would watch each
otherbathe(Li Yinhe, 1998:218). And in his accountof being partof a
group of 100 male youth sent to the Sino-Soviet borderin 1972, a
young man describedhow becausethey were not allowed to leave until they were age 30, some had homosexualrelationships(others,he
said, committedsuicide) (ZhangDening and Yue Jianyi, 1998b: 7).
In other instances, the sexual natureof an encounterbetween two
women (or men) may not have been clear.Forinstance,one friendrecalled thatwhen she was in the Anhuicountryside,it was commonfor
teenage girls from the city to sleep in couples, a practicecriticizedby
theircadres(presumablybecauseit was "abnormal")butone thatthey
defendedby arguingthat they had left the protectionand comfort of
theirfamilies andthereforeneededto comforteach other.Likewise,in
her memoirof the CulturalRevolution,Nanchudescribesan instance
when, on the HeilongjiangMilitaryFarm,anothergirl offeredto share
her warmerquilts.
166 MODERNCHINA/APRIL 2003
At night Su came and slipped under the small mountainof covers.
Inside, she took off her undershirtand helped me to take off mine. It
was warmerwearing no clothes when sleeping, she said. Our faces
were so close thatwe felt each other'sbreath.In her warmeyes, I saw
compassion and friendship.I put my hand on her bosom and felt her
heartjumping.... I felt a strong urge to hug her tightly, I so much
wanted physical intimacy with anotherhumanbeing. ... I was surprisedto find thatmy feelings, like a clear springrunningsmoothlyin
the deep valley,came directlyfromthe verybottomof my heart.It must
be that the party's propagandamachines had forgotten this plot of
primitiveland.It was like a wildflowerin secretbloom, pureandexotically fragrant,unpolluted.The sense of puritygeneratedby physical
closeness with anotheryoung girl was bewitching. [Nanchu, 2001:
148-49]
We must not assume that the sexual encountersof sent-downyouth
were necessarilyor only heterosexual.
For sent-down youth, then, years in the countryside included a
rangeof sexual experiences.Some hadbrief sexual encounterswith a
boyfriendor girlfriend,while othersactuallycohabitedfor long periods of time. Some, knowingnothingaboutsex, were luredinto satisfying the sexual desires of local cadres;some were forced to have sex
with cadres;and some either offered sex or consented to it so that a
local official would approvetheirrequestto returnto the city to work
or attend university.Some experimentedwith same-sex sex. To be
sure, in some cases, sent-downyouth were criticizedor punishedfor
pursuingromanticor sexualrelations,butthe storyof such repression
is only one partof the broaderhistoryof CulturalRevolutionsexuality.
SEXAND THE URBANLANDSCAPE
While studies of the CulturalRevolutiontend to treat sent-down
youthas representingthe experienceof all young people, a discussion
of the specific contexts in which sexualitywas partof CulturalRevolutionlife mustalso considerthe experienceof China'surbanpopulation. This includedfactoryworkers,studentsbelongingto the generation just younger than those sent to the countryside,and individuals
permittedto remainhome because their siblings had alreadygone to
the countryside.We know far less about the sexual experiences of
Honig /SOCIALISTSEX 167
urbandwellers, in large partbecause they have been far less prolific
than sent-downyouth in the productionof memoirs.
From some of the above accounts of individuals criticized for
"inappropriate"sexual liaisons, we know that it was not altogether
uncommonfor urbanworkersto engage in nonmaritalaffairsandthat
sex became a centralissue in political discussions. Ken Ling, in his
memoirof life as a Red Guard,describeshis experiencesat the Amoy
Textile Mill in Fujian. Women workersthere, he complained, "had
become so friendlywith the troopsstationedin the Amoy areathatthe
factory had become a sort of camp prostitutionhouse." He was so
angrythathe devotedhis seventeenthbirthdayto an attemptto rectify
this situation.He immediatelyorderedthe constructionof a barbedwire fence to block soldiers' access to the girls. "Theflames of [his]
anger shot ten thousandfeet high" when he discoveredthat the male
studentsstationedat the factoryhad decoratedtheirdormroom walls
with photographsof the young girl workers. "When one student
offeredto introducea few girls to me,"he remembers,"Ipulledoff my
glove and slapped him. I detested most seducing girl workers."He
then called an assembly of the girl workers,at which he admonished
them to "maintainthe honor and reputationof their country,"to
"remainpure"(Ling, 1972: 268-71).
Scatteredsurveysof factoryworkersconductedduringthe Cultural
Revolution confirm these anecdotes. For example, a survey of students assigned to factoriesin Shanghaiin the early 1970s reportsthat
"randommale-femalerelationships"(along with rapingandhumiliating women, living a "degenerate"lifestyle, and picking pockets and
stealing) was one of the major problems ("Shanghai laodong ju
baogao,"1975).
Yet none of this seems specific to the CulturalRevolution;such
problemswere reportedthroughoutthe early 1960s. For example, a
1964 reportfrom the ShanghaiTextile Bureaucomplainedthatat the
Number 15 Cotton Mill, workersfrequentlytalked about "obscene
matters,"especially beforeandaftermeetings;in thebathroom,showers, anddressingrooms;andduringthe nightshift. "Mostof whatthey
talkaboutaredirtythingsbetweenmen andwomen.... Some workers
not only talk aboutthese things, butperformthem as well. Once, during the middleshift, severalwomen workerssuddenlypulledthe pants
off of a male worker."One woman workerwas describedas having
168 MODERNCHINA/APRIL 2003
had affairswith at least five men; anotherwoman had had so many
affairsthatwhen she had a baby,even she did not know who was the
father; the union head allegedly had more than 100 pornographic
books athome, whichhe wouldlend to neighborsandto women workers in the factory,andhadrapedthe female servantnext door("Shanghai fangzhiju baogao," 1964). Another 1964 reportdescribeda 23year-old woman workerguilty of "improper"relations with at least
eleven men (Shanghaizhijinjutuanwei,1964b).Yetanotherlamented
the numberof young workersengaged in impropermale-femalerelations, some of whom had borne childrenout of wedlock. Even more
serious,accordingto the report,was the numberof olderworkerswho
were alreadymarriedandhadchildren,yet werepursuingextramarital
affairswith women at work (Shanghaizhijinju tuanwei, 1964a).
More specific to the context of the CulturalRevolutionwas the experienceof urbanyouthwho remainedin the city, often with no parental supervision.Bai Ge, authorof a Chinese study of "ordinarypeople's" lives duringthe CulturalRevolution,stressesthe importanceof
recalling those who were middle school students at that time. "To
speak of the average,"he writes,
they were not "good children."In fact, one could actually describe
themas "littlehoodlums"(xiao liumang),or "youthwho lost theirfooting."Earlylove was the rule amongthem, andbecauseof it they would
steal, destroy classrooms, and wreck public property.In class they
would send notes to female classmatesand then interceptthem on the
way home. [Bai Ge, 1993: 280]
A young girl who enteredmiddle school in 1969 recalls the extent
to which relationshipsbetween male andfemale classmatesshattered
the asexualcomradelystereotype."Obviouslyby the time we were at
middle school, we weren't completely innocent about sex," she recalls,
but we didn'tknow all thatmucheither.I was awarethatseveralof the
boys fancied me. I couldn'thelp knowing.They were always tryingto
please me and showing off. How did they do this? Well, for example,
wheneverI had a period,I was sureto find a big barof chocolate in my
desk. You see, when I had a period I didn't do morningexercises....
Honig /SOCIALISTSEX 169
Thatmeanttheboyscouldworkit out.I stilldon'tknowwhousedto
leaveit forme. [ZhangXinxinandSangYue,1987:316]
Anotherwomanremembersthatamongyoungpeople remainingin
the city, "makingboyfriends"was a majoroccupation-so much so
that when she ran into one of her childhood friends years later, the
friend asked her how many boys she had slept with duringthat time
(i.e., the CulturalRevolution) (Zhang Xinxin and Sang Yue, 1987:
65).
In additionto middle school students,urbanneighborhoodswere
populatedby numerousstreetgangs thatemergedduringthe Cultural
Revolution. They are frequently referred to in memoirs, which
describe the pursuit of love and sexual exploits-along with petty
theft-as the majoroccupationof gang members.Forexample,Liang
Heng, authorof Son of the Revolution,recallshis own participationin
a neighborhoodstreetgang in Changshain 1968, a time when his parents had been sent to cadreschools, his sisterswere gone, and he was
home alone (Liang and Shapiro 1983). He describes the variety of
gangs that proliferatedduring those years, including pre-Liberation
professional gangs that reappeared,newly formed gangs of young
people who had no school obligations,and gangs (such as the one he
joined) composed of childrenof high-rankingofficials. After swearing blood brotherhoodbefore a pictureof ChairmanMao, he and fellow membersspenttheirdays learningto fight,drinking,smokingcigarettes, and pursuing girlfriends. Liang describes his friend in the
gang, Cheng Guang, whom he helped craft letters to a girlfriend.
When a rival gang knocked Cheng's girlfriend off her bike and
insulted her, Cheng and Liang's gang instantlypreparedto fight in
revenge (Liang and Shapiro, 1983: 148-53).
JungChang(1991), in her memoir WildSwans, recalls her twelveyear-old brother'sparticipationin a Chengdustreet gang duringthe
early years of the CulturalRevolution.
Xiao-hei'sbrothers[i.e.,membersof hisgang]werealsoobsessedwith
like Xiao-heiwere
chasinggirls.The twelve-andthirteen-year-olds
oftentoo shy to go aftergirlsthemselves,so theybecamethe older
love letters.Xiao-hei
boys'messengers,deliveringtheirerror-riddled
wouldknockona door,prayingthatit wouldbeopenedbythegirlherself andnotherfatherorbrother,whowassureto slaphimacrossthe
170 MODERNCHINA/APRIL 2003
head.Sometimes,when feargot the upperhand,he would slip the letter
underthe door.
When a girl rejecteda proposal,Xiao-hei and other youngerboys
becamethe tool of revengeof the spumedlover,makingnoises outside
her house and firing catapultsat her window.When the girl came out,
they spat at her, swore at her, shook their middle fingers at her, and
yelled dirty words which they did not fully understand.Abusive Chinese termsfor women arerathergraphic:"shuttle"(for the shapeof her
genitals), "horsesaddle"(for the image of being mounted),"overspilling oil lamp"("toofrequent"discharge),and "worn-outshoes"(much
"used").[Chang, 1991: 371]
Some girls, according to Chang, "triedto find protectorsin the
gangs, and the more capable ones became helmswomenthemselves.
The girls who became involved in this male world sportedtheir own
picturesquesobriquets,such as 'Dewy Black Peony,' 'BrokenWine
Vessel,' and 'Snake Enchantress'" (Chang, 1991: 371).
Neighborhoodgangs preoccupiedwith pursuingwomen were so
common thatone provincialgovernmentissued a reportcomplaining
aboutyouthgangs harassingyoung women, attributingthe problemto
the "influenceof bourgeois ideology" (Schoenhals, 1996: 178).
As the above accountdemonstrates,thereare two almost opposite
stories of sexuality during the CulturalRevolution:one, more frequently told in the past, emphasizes the punishmentof people who
transgressedsexual norms, engaged in premaritalsex, or had extramaritalaffairs;a second storyemphasizesthe extent to which people
did preciselythose things.The formerhighlightsthe silencing of public discussion of sexuality; the latter stresses widespread popular
engagementwith issues of sexuality.My point is not to resolve these
two contradictoryversions by arguingthatone is more "true,""more
accurate,"or "moretypical."The contradictoryimages can be partly
attributedto differences in when particularaccounts were written
(e.g., those producedin the late 1970s-a time of widespreadcondemnationof the CulturalRevolution-are far more likely to emphasize sexual repressionthan those that appearedin the 1990s, when
public discussion of sexuality had become much more prominent).
They might also be partlyexplainedby institutionalcontext, as state
farms, production and constructioncorps, army units, and village
Honig /SOCIALISTSEX 171
productionbrigades had vastly different "sexual climates" (village
productionbrigadesbeing far less subject to control than were state
farms and the militaryproductionand constructioncorps). It is also
possible that the two "stories"are intimately related:perhapsit was
precisely because of the uncontrolledopportunitiesfor sexual liaisons that local officials attemptedto assert control. Likewise, perhaps it was because some Red Guards were sexually exploiting
women that others felt compelled to make sexual purityone of their
primarymissions.8
The simultaneousproliferationof sexualactivityandregulationare
both partof what now can be seen as the continualnegotiationof sex
and sexuality at the core of the CulturalRevolution.One could argue
that the very act of conducting a so-called criticism session against
two people for romanticor sexual liaisons in itself constituteda discussion of sexuality.
It is importantto pointout thatpopularexperiencesof sex andsexuality duringthe CulturalRevolutionwere deeply gendered.Both men
and women were victims of political scapegoating, and both were
agents of sexual pursuits.Yet women had particularvulnerabilitiesas
objectsof sexual scorn(being labeled "brokenshoe,"for example),as
victims of sexual attack,and as supplicantsexpected to tradesexual
favorsfor basic needs. They also faced the particularrisks associated
with pregnanciesresultingfrom sex (desiredor undesired)outside of
marriage.In this context, sexual experiencesof the CulturalRevolution both reflected and perpetuatedwomen's subordinationto men
(despite the CulturalRevolution state propagandaproclaimingthat
"menand women are the same").
Finally,we shouldreturnto the broadassumption,alludedto at the
beginningof this article,thatthe post-Maoerarepresentsa total,complete reversal of Cultural Revolution policies and social practices
(sometimeswith the implicationthat"therewas death,andnow life").
One of the importantfindingsof researchon sexualityis thatphenomena usually assumed to be particularto the economic reforms (or to
pre-1949 China)-premarital sex, extramaritalaffairs,pornographic
literature,rape, prostitution,abandonedbabies-in fact existed during the CulturalRevolutionas well, even while theircauses and specific forms were often profoundly different. Ultimately, it is those
specificities that are most crucial.
172 MODERNCHINA/APRIL 2003
NOTES
1. Films of the 1990s also emphaticallyinsertedsexuality into reflections on the Cultural
Revolution.See, for example,JiangWen's ThoseBrilliantDays (Yangguangcanlande rizi) and
WangXiaoyan's TheMonkeyKid.
2. Wendy Larsonextends this analysis by suggesting that the emphasis on sex featuredin
recent accounts of the CulturalRevolution,particularlyones writtenfor an English-speaking
audience,is in partan effortto modernizeChinaby rewritingthe CulturalRevolutionas an erotic
experience (Larson, 1999).
3. Only in 1974 did the booklet Funii baojian zhishi (Knowledge about women's health)
appear-and even it devotedless thana single page to women's "sexuallife,"includedin the section on family planning. It described sex as a "naturalbiological desire" among physically
matureadults,an activityappropriateto marriedcouples. The brief presentationfocused on the
circumstancesunderwhich sex should be avoided (when a woman was menstruatingor when
eitherperson had consumed alcohol or was ill) and how it should conform to a plan ("once or
twice a week is normal")(Shanghaidiyi yixueyuan, 1974:9). This book appearsto be a revision
of a 1970 publication.
4. HarrietEvanspointsout thatwhen the story,"TheWhite-HairedGirl,"was revisedto be
performedas a model opera,both the romancebetweenXi'er andDaichunandthe rapeof Xi'er
by the landlorddisappeared(Evans, 1997:7). Fora highly nuancedanalysisof the erasureof sexuality from "TheWhite-HairedGirl,"see Meng (1993).
5. I am gratefulto CarolynWakemanfor this observation.
6. The commonness of cohabitationis also attestedto by the frequencywith which sentdown youth sought abortions.Liu Liliang, sent to Lishui in Jiangsu,recalls that many knew of
educatedyouthwho, havingbecome pregnant,went to Nanjingfor abortionsor who triedto find
personalconnectionsthatwould enablethem to get an abortionat a nearbyhospital.Otherwise,
they would use Chinese medicine,butthat,she believed, was dangerousand risky (Liu Liliang,
interviewwith author,Nanjing, 1997).
7. This regulationreinforceda pre-CulturalRevolution (1964) CentralCommitteedocumentcommandinglocal cadresto attendto the widespreadproblemof female sent-downyouth
being forced or trickedinto marriageand sexually abused(Ding Yizhuang, 1998: 321).
8. It is worthnoting, too, the possible relationshipbetween the phenomenadescribedhere
andthe extensivesexual "adventures"of Mao Zedong,as describedin ThePrivateLifeof Chairman Mao (Li Zhisui, 1994).
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EmilyHonig is a professor of women'sstudies and historyat the Universityof California, Santa Cruz.She is the authorof Sisters and Strangers:Womenin the ShanghaiCotton Mills, 1919-1949 and CreatingChinese Ethnicity:Subei People in Shanghai,18001949. She is currentlyworkingon a study of gender and sexualityduring the Cultural
Revolution.