Sex Month at the Bookstore

I like to spend time in Taipei's best bookstore, Eslite (誠品). I sit in the cafe several days a week, mostly studying Chinese, sometimes reading for fun.

The other day, I went to use their bathroom, and I notice above each urinal is a small colored placard. When I get closer, I realize that these are advertisements for books. Lo and behold, December is Sex Month at Eslite. All books on sex are discounted, and each little sign gives a suggestion for a book. While I am relieving myself, I see that "The Joy of Oral Sex" is discounted.

After I zip up, I check out the other signs. One is called "Position a the Day". There is another advertisement below the mirror as I wash my hands. There is a picture of a girl and guy in a stall attempting to do the nasty, a guy by himself grabbing his crotch, a girl by herself grabbing her crotch. They are all, of course, reading sex books that you can buy, discounted this month, at Eslite.

Yet again, I am reminded that I am not living in the States. Although people in the States are fairly open about sex, just place these types of photos in your large chain bookstore and watch the hordes of church-going Americans begin to protest.

Taiwan doesn't have America's puritans, but "sexually open" is not the way most foreigners here would use to describe Taiwanese culture. Perhaps what's happening is that a few Taiwanese troublemakers are trying to give the culture a push and see what happens. Perhaps the folks peeing at Eslite who don't like the little advertisements deal with their disgust in other ways. Maybe they talk about it at dinner instead of rushing to a protest with a pitchfork in hand.