Scanner : Chinese customs

China's Last Eunuch

Colleen Kane — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:30:00 GMT

Sun Yaoting, the last livijng euneuch in China, was living history when he died in 1996. Thirteen years later, his biography is finally coming out, and it reveals things like the sex lives of eunuchs and their emperor, the castrations performed at home, and the resulting incontinence.

Sun cried to his amateur biogapher only when recalling his castration and the time when the pickled remains were later thrown away. He became a eunuch to gain acces to the emperor's Frobidden City, in hopes of avenging stolen property and the buring of their home by a landlord. The description of Sun's home castration is not for the faint of heart or stomach.

His desperate father performed the castration on the bed of their mud-walled home, with no anesthetic and only oil-soaked paper as a bandage. A goose quill was inserted in Sun's urethra to prevent it getting blocked as the wound healed.

OK, that's enough about that. It took him two months to be able to leave his bed, when he discovered the emporer he intended to serve had abdicated.

HIs biographer told Reuters, "He never became rich, he never became powerful, but he became very rich in experience and secrets."

So depressed now.

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That Sex Toy Is... Pooooisssoooon

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:16:00 GMT

We've received a slew of tips for this one, from reader Elissar to former Nerve contributer James Frey (thanks all!), which shows you how alarmed people are.

It seems that Ann Summers, seller of sex toys and other goodies in UK stores, has recalled Chocolate-flavored body spreads and/or Chocolate-flavored penis and nipple spreads due to contaminated contents. The products are spiked with melamine, the same chemical that killed at least four Chinese babies in recent weeks, thanks to its inclusion in milk powder products. (No one is deliberately posioning anyone, at least we don't think so-- melamine, which is non-toxic in small amounts, is sometimes used illegally so products will pass protein requirements, among other less-nefarious reasons.)

The British Food Standards Agency (FSA) said melamine had been found in Chinese-made "I Love You" sets, sold at Ann Summers sex shops, containing chocolate and strawberry body pens and chocolate-flavoured penis and nipple spreads.

"This is a first. We've never had to put out an alert before on 'willy spread' -- chocolate-flavoured or otherwise," the FSA said on its Web site...

Via Reuters.

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Caption This: Perv Photogs And Bai Ling's Nipple Slip

Brian Fairbanks — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:10:00 GMT

Bai Ling was recently voted the world's Worst Dressed Celebrity in a poll of over one million blog readers.

Now, to add insult to, well, insult... there's this...

[NSFW ahead]

Last month, Ling was promoting one of her many, many movies (for starters, she has ten movies listed on IMDB as in "post-production") when she made the unfortunate mistake of bending over in such a loose-fitting dress...

This just isn't her year. Did you know that back on Valentine's Day this year, a distraught Ling was arrested at LAX for the crime of wandering out of a shop with a pack of batteries and a couple magazines? Luckily, she was able to plead to disturbing the peace and escaped with a small fine...

...but man, this girl needs a break. Then again, if you can shock a papparazzi just with the size of your nipples, maybe that's a good thing. (We're big fans of freaking out, pissing off, or generally driving these people insane... in case you haven't noticed.)

It should be noted we're pulling out this old pic because a) if we'd known about it, we'd have used it a month ago and b) we first started out telling you about Hayden Panettiere's nipple slip, which we realized is total bullshit:

See why we hate papparazzi? Not only are you invading someone's privacy on their 19th birthday, but you're taking a picture of their nipple and you don't even do a good job of it...

Via She So Crazy and 2Snaps.

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19-Year-Old Girl In China Strips For Charity

Brian Fairbanks — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:21:00 GMT

Over a million people have viewed these photos that Scanner Nicole showed us earlier of a partly-clad teenage girl who is raising money for victims of her country's devastating earthquake.

"I am still a student, so I am doing my part in my way. I just want to give something back to my hometown."

Of course, conservatives all over the world (especially in her home country) have been attacking the 19-year-old Xiao Yun:

'These photographs look like they were carefully selected. She probably just wants to use the viral nature of the Internet to raise her profile online.'

Another blogger lamented: 'It's a pity that these 'post-90' (referring to the year 1990) girls are so shameless. Is this all they know how to do? What happened to their dignity?' [Asia Finest]

We say it's a brilliant way to skirt obscenity law and do some good for people who have nothing. Unless she turns out to be hoarding the money for herself, we have to assume her heart is in the right place... [Note: We were going to include a donation link, but we can't even find the original website. Perhaps here?]

More photos here.

Via Ananova.

Previously: Chinese Student Understands That Charity Starts With a Little Titty Flash

China Says "Virgins Get Better Husbands"

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:29:00 GMT

While we were pleasantly surprised to learn that women in China still give birth to girls, we were nonetheless puzzled by this story in the Southern Weekly, one of the country's last bastions of progressivism...

Shen Fan's "chastity education" lasted over ten years. When Shen Fan was in middle school, she hardly played with boys, let alone went to any parties. She didn't play with boys, she didn't feel she needed to. Even now, she never goes home later than 9 o'clock when she is with her family on holidays.

Sometimes her mother tells Shen Fan her own story: When she was sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution, she and her girlfriends were determined not to marry peasants. Their determination paid off: after they went back to the cities, all of the "sisters" got married with government cadres, doctor and businessman—all of them urbanites. Every time Shen's mother meets these friends, she becomes even more proud of the right choice she made.

"My parents believe that the most important thing for a woman is to marry into a good family, and losing virginity before marriage is losing competitiveness, which may lead to losing an opportunity of a good marriage," said Shen Fan.

Is a girl who remains a virgin until marriage more likely to find a wonderful, sexually fulfilling husband (not that the Chinese government wants that), or a guy who is just interested in conquering a virgin, then will run off to start the cheating? Or something else?

Anyway, that's all beside the point-- check out the closing paragraph of the article, which will only further confuse you:

Now Shen Fan has a new boyfriend, but she has not told her parents, because he cannot meet her parents' standards for a prospective son-in-law. Another thing she does not want to let her parents know is that they had sex. Shen Fan said she tries to avoid wearing warm-colored clothes because that makes her feel less guilty.

Wait-- this is a story about chastity that ends with an unlocking of the chastity belt? Perhaps the writer had trouble finding any Chinese teenagers that were still virgins.

Meanwhile, the chastity and abstinence movement rolls on, further ignoring the statistics that say the program is only backfiring...

Via Danwei.

"Barbie Shoot" Chinese For "Lolita Glamour Shots"

Bryan Christian — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:38:00 GMT

NPR finally has something amusing to report from China. After more than a week of filing relentlessly depressing updates on the earthquake that struck our future World War IV opponent, they've managed to squeeze out a sweet and slightly strange story on the world of only children. (Remember: the government can fine families with more than one child.) Our favorite discovery in the piece? That most Chinese girls get "art photos" taken of them when they're in their teens: photo sessions where they get dolled up and slightly Lolita-ish for... well, it's unclear who. Bamboo, the gal pictured above, referred to her "art photos" as her "Barbie shoot," which may or may not be a common term for the practice -- but it's certainly what we're using from now on.

Photo courtesy of Luo Meng Zhu/NPR