I had assumed that China maintained a relatively repressed attitude toward sex, but in this, too, I was wrong. True the government holds a prudish disposition and keeps an careful eye on the lyrical content of pop songs and the skin content on films, but Chinese society, at least in its urban variation [...]. You can't buy Playboy in China, but should your sexual needs involve battery-operated devices, just head down to your friendly neighborhood sex toy emporium [...] (Chap. 9)

But as I peered a little more closely at these crudely rendered porcelain depictions of intimate acts, I gathered that these images were not meant to arouse but inform, and I can only say that if I were an ancient Chinese lass on her wedding day, spending a few minutes with Mom, who was informing her daughter of what exactly was expected of her on her wedding night, I'd flee. Though I did note that the evening would end with cuddling. (Chap. 9)