Shanghaiist: 'Respected professor upsetting the sexual apple cart'

Peijin

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:34:12 +0800

orpheus: you're right; that sentence is inaccurate as is written. This is what other people interpret her as saying, not what she herself says -- the rest of the post, i trust, makes this point clear, esp. when i talk about this as related to the freedom of speech and classical liberalism, negative freedom, etc.

Orpheus

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:24:59 +0800

"Because she openly advocates polygamy, one-night stands, homosexuality (including homosexual marriage), and even, in certain cases, incest." - That's perhaps inaccurate. It is not these activities per se that Professor Li "advocate" , but the individual right to practise them. I personally feel that Professor Li provides a great antipodes, to what I call "prurient puritanism" that many Chinese are still obsessed with. Her function follows a time-honored strategy of Chinese Liberals from the 1910s, that if one wishes to introduce a drastic reform to this conservative society, he/she may raise a battle cry so "extreme" that it attracts all the fire power of the opponents, so that a milder version of reform that comes out of the debate will be more readily embraced by all parties. That's how Modern Written Chinese (白话文) was adopted.

oldtimer

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 14:20:55 +0800

great post. with stories like this can we still call shanghaiist a "blog"?

nanheyangrouchuan

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 14:14:57 +0800

Dr Ruth arrives in China.