Book excerpt: After decades of near silence on the matter, sex is being talked about in China. But what is being said? Who is allowed to speak? And whose purposes are being served? This ground-breaking book takes a critical look at how sex in China is thought and talked about. Drawing on the work of the country’s foremost sex experts, and years of research in the field, it gives an overview of the sexual landscape in China today. Including new material on transsexuals, fetishism, sex aids and pornography, the book shows that the dominant ways of thinking about sex are neither innocent nor inconsequential, and that amid catalogues of prescriptions linking self-management to the collective good, people are making decisions about how to live their sexual lives. The most lively and accessible critique of sexual discourse, this book will be essential reading for scholars in Chinese studies, cultural studies and sexuality and gender studies.