Facing stiff competition, Shanghai sex museum makes comeback

Shanghaiist knows that reporters and editors often get bored, and in order to spice up their lives, throw in a couple of racy double entrendres that they hope some people will get. For example, take this China Daily article about the cold shoulder that the Shanghai Sex Museum received:

Yet locals remain flaccid. "I won't go to this museum,'' says Jimmy Zhang, a white-collar worker in his 30s. "It isn't a matter of concept, since one can find them in all sorts of media, like video or Internet. I just think that sex is still very private and personal, and unsuitable to be shown in public.''

That article, from 2003, made it seem as if the museum faced a dire future because it wasn't making enough money to cover rent and 70 percent of the visitors were foreigners. Things seemed bleak then:

"I'm sure that this will be a world-class sex museum.'' It's just too bad that Shanghai's libido isn't strong enough to keep it.

After the sex museum couldn't make rents on Nanjing Lu, it moved to Wuding Lu and eventually closed down. The museum and its founder, Liu Dalin, moved much of the collection to Jiangsu's Tongli. Apparently though, since sometime last year, the museum reopened as a branch of the Tongli museum, and under the auspices of the Bund sightseeing tunnel. The admissions price is a mere 20 RMB, and evidently "Jimmy" isn't feeling so flaccid anymore -- now only 20 percent of the visitors are sexually depraved foreigners, and what's more, the museum is in the black again.

Those involved say that their newfound success has much to do with the inclusion in the sightseeing tunnel -- no longer beleagured by the stiff rents on Nanjing Lu and with all the free advertising and visitor traffic typical of tourist traps, the museum turned a net profit of 400,000 RMB this year. The original article (in Chinese) is here.

Picture from choey.com