What's A Dildo Between Friends?

After twenty-some-odd days away from my household, I am finally back home. It is a trip that I will never forget. Several things of note happened so I'll try in the next couple of days to give you as much detail as I can.

Today, I want to chat about the country-wide ban on social media in China.

Chinese censorship bites. A few years ago, I wasn't able to view any Blogger blogs but I could still access the back end and churn out a few posts. This visit was different. Not only could I not log on to my Blogger account but I couldn't access Facebook or Twitter, either.

This made me mental. Exactly how does one begin a day without the CNN Twitter headlines? How was I supposed to keep track of my son without access to Facebook? Apparently, social media is as threatening as nuclear arms as far as the Chinese government is concerned. It is monitored and moderated and contained. For a country that is advancing at the speed of sound, the continued widespread blocking of "undesirable" websites is sadly and achingly backward. In my little opinion, without debate, the creative process is crippled.

There is irony to be had here, too.

Last year, the Chinese government was barraged with criticism when it was announced that new regulations would require that all future PC's sold in the country would have to come with preloaded software that filtered out pornography and other "vulgar" content from the web. It was explained that this was to "protect" the population. And yet, at the airport in Guangzhou, I noticed something that had never been there before. Anyone, including a child, could step into one of the many souvenir shops and purchase from a HUGE assortment of sex toys. Some of them bordered on the bizarre. All of them were in graphic, high definition packaging which depicted each toy's many and creative uses.

In detail.

Pictorial, siliconed, arsehole-bleached, detail.

Now, nothing much surprises me and I am completely liberal in my sensibilities but I just can't image casually walking up to the counter and having the checkout girl ring up a "Pocket Rocket" along with my gum and soda. How exactly does one say, "vibrator, please" in Cantonese?

I imagine dissent in the form of social media and lechery in the form of pornography could be problematic for the Chinese government and yes, some might argue that censorship is an effective tool in shielding the nation from all that opinion and filth.

(somewhere, George Orwell is screaming)

For goodness sakes, the very least they could have done was offer a little birth control at the point of sale or perhaps a sex education class for the toddler who picked up one of the units and promptly put it in her mouth.

Sadly, I'm not kidding and that was my last memory of China as we boarded our plane and left for Vietnam.