Viral Public Sex Video Angers Chinese Government

China’s internet – already monitored and restricted by the country’s Communist authorities – has been ablaze this week after a public sex video that was shared went viral and looks set to prompt societal discussions about the nature of sex in the partially closed off nation.

The film – only 60 seconds in length – features a man and woman having sex in the changing rooms of Japanese branded department store Uniqlo in the city of Shanghai. Despite government censors’ best efforts, they couldn’t stop the video spreading on WeChat and Chinese-only social network Sina Weibo. Reverting to another tactic, authorities leaned upon Uniqlo to distance themselves from the video via a public statement. Rumor had it that Uniqlo had engineered the incident as a marketing stunt; a notion Uniqlo fiercely denied.

Not wishing to lose face, the Chinese authorities turned on other people and departments. Executives at China’s two biggest internet companies were issued with official reprimands and – inevitably – the police are on the case.

But despite officials’ assertion that the public were outraged by such ‘indecency’, the reaction of the people has been to embrace the moment and get involved in some way. The Uniqlo store has become a Mecca for selfie-snapping citizens and a line of t-shirts has even been printed.

Viral Public Sex Video Angers Chinese Government

According to the Guardian foreign social media caught on too, including a spoof photograph of a warning supposedly posted in a fitting room at Harrods, the upmarket London department store. “Dear customers!” the fake sign read. “The new rule is: each Chinese couple can only have 10 minutes using those fitting rooms which is fully enough… Sorry for any inconvenience that will cause.”

For a nation that appears to suffers regular schisms between its Communist values and voluminous commercialism and rampant growth, the Uniqlo incident may cause further ructions still.

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