爱华网现代人的行为不像5000年前中华文明初露曙光时那样有研究价值了，但性是个例外，而且有一本关于这个主题的新书，这本书带我们一窥第一人口大国的床笫与妓院。
Released last month, “Behind the Red Door: Sex in China” (Earnshaw Books) examines how a culture born in concepts of yin-yang balance has fared against powerful forces like Mao Zedong and the Internet. Like many things in China, finds first-time author Richard Burger, sex is somehow different than in the West.上个月出版的《红门背后：性在中国》（Earnshaw图书）向我们展示了有着阴阳平衡概念的传统文化与毛泽东和互联网的较量。Richard Burger在他的处女作中发现，与中国的许多事一样，这里的性与西方有点不同。
Mr. Burger, 58 years old and now based in Phoenix, is best known in China for his decade-old blog Peking Duck. Though he originally intended for it to serve as an online travelogue, Beijing’s heavy-handed reaction to the 2003 SARS outbreak energized him to focus Peking Duck on the country’s political and social structure.Burger先生，现年58岁，家住凤凰城，因他的有十多年历史的博客“北京烤鸭”而闻名。他本来只是打算做一个关于旅游见闻的博客，北京对2003年SARS笨手笨脚的反应促使他把“北京烤鸭”的焦点放在政治与社会结构。
It’s a big job to survey sex in China, where aspects of ancient culture (Confucian doctrine, silk curtains, concubines) echo in modern society (Communist censorship, online dating, divorce detectives). “No society has swung more dramatically from extreme sexual openness to prudish orthodoxy and then to the sexually ambiguous atmosphere we see at present,” writes Mr. Burger.
调查中国的性是项大工程，它涉及到传统文化（儒家学说、丝绸窗帘、小妾）与现代社会（共产主义审查制度、网络交友、婚姻侦探）的交织。Burger先生写到：“没有那个社会有中国这样戏剧性的剧变，从极端开放到道貌岸然的假正经，再到如今的暧昧气氛。”
In probing dating, marriage, homosexuality and promiscuity, Mr. Burger tracks down sexologists and prostitutes for their input. But “Behind the Red Door” isn’t voyeuristic. Instead it draws on fabled sources like “Dream of the Red Chamber” and news coverage of notable junctures, like Beijing’s first sex shop in 1993, a confessional blog launched by a woman known as Muzimei in 2003 and the 2010 closure of Chongqing’s Hilton during a crackdown by Bo Xilai (who last month was expelled from the Communist Party in part because of “improper sexual relations” with multiple women).在调查约会、结婚、同性恋、乱交这些问题的时候，Burger 先生征求了性学家和妓女的意见。但《红门背后》并不是一本窥阴的书，它引用了大量虚构的资料，比如《红楼梦》；同时也引用了关键时刻的新闻报道，比如1993年北京第一家性用品商店，2003年木子美的忏悔博客，BO2010年关闭重庆希尔顿酒店（BO上个月因与多名女性发生或保持不正当关系被开除出党）。
Sex and deception emerge as a running theme in the book, whether it’s $300 hymen reconstructions to fake virginity, the large percentage of gay men marrying women to save face, or the seven tiers of prostitution — from ernai (“second wife”) to xiagongpeng (“down the work shack”).在这本书中，性和欺骗是不变的主题，从300美元的处女膜修复手术，到大量男同性恋为了面子而与一个女人结婚，或者是7个不同层次的卖淫——从二奶到小工棚。
Mr. Burger spoke with the Journal about the Chinese sexual revolution and how the country is dealing with it. Below are edited excerpts from the conversation.Burger 先生与本报聊了中国的性革命和国家如何处理的对策。以下是谈话的节选。
The Wall Street Journal: Why did you write this book?华尔街日报：你为什么要写这本书？
Mr. Burger: This was totally different from anything I’d done in the past. I’ve been an observer and always been fascinated, for instance, with the phenomenon of prostitution in China, about gays in China, the sexual rituals that I saw that were very different from in the West.Burger ：这与我以前做的任何事都不同。我曾经是个观察者，对——例如，中国的卖淫或是同性恋现象——非常着迷，这里的游戏规则与西方相去甚远。
If you look for books on the subject that offer us a survey from sex in ancient China to today, you’ll find there’s almost only the academic literature available, white papers, textbooks, so I thought this was a real opportunity to fill that gap.如果你想看中国从古至今关于性的书，你会发现只有白皮书、教科书这样的学术资料可用，所以我有了填补这项空白的想法。
How does China’s sexual revolution differ from the West’s?中国的性革命与西方有何不同？
The sexual revolution in the West was part of a much broader revolution for all sorts of personal freedoms. It became an atmosphere of “do your own thing” and “to rebel is good.” In China, the sexual revolution, it’s on the government’s terms to a large extent. You can only go so far. It’s not so much personal freedom, individual freedom, than a relaxation of the taboos about sex that have ruled China from the time of Mao and even earlier.西方的性革命是范围更广的人身自由革命的一部分，它形成了“自己的事情自己搞定”和“造反有理”的氛围。中国的性革命，很大程度上政府说了算，只能到此为止。它与人身自由、个人自由相去甚远，只是一个对毛及其以前时代禁忌的放松。
How does the government influence sex culture?政府如何影响性文化？
A good example of this is the telephone hotlines that I mention in the introduction. These phone lines for sexual counsel, they started in the mid-, late-1990s, and you would think, “OK, here are people calling in about sex and talking about their love lives.” And you might see this as liberating. But in fact, all of the counselors were government cadres, and the shows were sponsored by the government…it was all about strengthening the family.我在引言中提到的热线电话是一个好例子，这些性咨询的热线电话，兴起于90年代中后期，你可能会认为：“这些打电话的人只是想谈谈性和他们的爱情生活。”但实际上，这些顾问都是国家干部，节目是由政府发起的，目的是为了家庭稳定。
Is dishonesty an important facet of the story?欺骗是这个故事的重点吗？
It is, and it has to be, because China’s in a tug-of-war against traditional Chinese values such as the wife being a virgin on her wedding night, a traditional Chinese belief. It’s a tug-of-war between that and Western-style sexual openness.确实是这样，因为中国处于传统价值观与西方观念的相持阶段，例如洞房花烛夜妻子必须是处女与西方性开放的矛盾。
Women are more frequently having sex with men who are demanding sex, but when it comes time to get married, they still have to prove that they’re a virgin. They have to lie. They have to go to outrageous lengths, such as having a hymenoplasty operation.女性更频繁地与有需要的男性发生关系，但要结婚时，她们仍然需要证明自己是处女。她们不得不说谎，以至于离谱到做处女膜修复手术。
How actively is pornography censored online?网上对于色情内容的审查严不严？
I equate what they are trying to do on the Internet in terms of pornography as a game of whack-a-mole. They are always announcing these big stings. A couple of years ago the government announced they had shut down 60,000 porn sites and arrested 5,000 of the operators. One of them was even sentenced to life in prison.我认为在网上对色情内容的应对措施与游戏“打地鼠”一样，政府经常宣布严打，几年前宣传说关掉了60000家色情网站，逮捕了5000名涉案人员，其中一人甚至被判无期徒刑。
What did you find about sex education?你有没有找到性教育方面的内容?
In the early 1980s, sex education became mandatory for the first time. It had to be taught in the high schools. Most teachers are so squeamish that they either zip through it — these are biology teachers usually — they just hurry through it, or they skip it altogether.80年代早期，性教育第一次成为初中的必修课。大部分老师（通常是生物老师）太神经质了，他们要么一带而过，要么完全忽略。
What they do teach, when they do teach it, is about anatomy and biology. There’s nothing about sexual morality. It’s just taught as how reproduction works.他们教的内容和时间都是关于解剖学和生物学，与性道德完全无关，只是关于如何繁殖。
China remains, for all the advances, very uptight about sex. And most Chinese parents, I would say, don’t teach their kids about sex at all. And some will even tell them that they found them under a rock or on the street somewhere. It’s such a sticky subject.虽然有了很大进步，在性方面中国仍然很保守。我敢说，大多数中国父母，在这方面对自己的孩子守口如瓶。甚至有的父母让孩子自己到街上或是什么地方自己找答案。这是一个棘手的问题。
One chapter is called “Shifting Landscape.” What’s shifting?有一章是“改天换地”。什么在改变？
I start it off with the well-known story of Muzimei in 2003 writing her tell-all blog where she names names and described what they did in graphic terms. She was the first to gain attention who wrote about about sex, just for the sake of sex, and the joys of personal satisfaction with no strings attached. In fact, the government soon shut it down. But she had left an indelible mark.我从2003年广为人知的木子美的故事开始讲起，木子美把名字和他们的所作所为用图片的形式在她的博客上全盘说出。她是因描写性受关注的第一人，为了性而性，没有其他附加条件。实际上，政府很快就把她封杀了，但她已经创造了历史。
She generated a new conversation about the role of women…that a woman shouldn’t feel guilty about having sex and that she should savor it.她引起了关于女性角色的讨论，女人不应该因性行为而有负罪感，她们应该享受性。
We’re seeing a decided shift toward sexual liberation, but I think it’s going to be a long hard slog before we see anything comparable to what we saw in the West, simply because, as we’ve said, traditional Chinese beliefs and values are playing a tug-of-war.性解放将要迎来转折点，但与我们在西方看到的相比，还有很长的一段路要走，就像我说过的那样，中国的传统价值观还有影响。
Why does China have so many sex shops?中国为什么有这么多性用品商店?
The sex shops aren’t about lewdness or about pornography. They’re about health.性用品商店不下流也不色情，它与健康有关。
The thinking is just like the hotlines that a sexually satisfied population, a more contented population adds to the nation’s harmony. If you don’t have a sexually satisfied population, they’re more likely to question authority.这些思考与热线电话一样是为了更多的人性福，人们越性福，社会越和谐。如果许多人都不性福，他们就要质疑政府了。
