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Review: Robert Hans van Gulik - Sexual Life in China (1961)
This was an interesting book. I never would’ve expected such a book to have been written and compiled, especially in the 60s. In any case, I felt that from this book I learned both about Chinese culture and Western views towards Asia in the 60s.
I would recommend this to people who are interested in Chinese culture. However, I would say that this book is less of a non-fiction book and more of an attempt to be almost an encyclopedia. The reading does get repetitive, particularly towards the end, and I felt that Gulik prioritized being informative over being interesting.
Format
This book covered sexual life in China in chronological order. I think this was the first sign that Gulik intended for this book to be more of a reference or resource book, rather than a novel you would recommend to friends.
Due to the chronological nature of the book, the beginning of the book was far more interesting. In the first few time periods, Gulik introduced all sorts of concepts and philosophies that would tie into Chinese thought and culture. There was much less of this towards the end of the book, and I feel it’s because Gulik observed a lot of the same themes in different dynasties and thus did not seek to explain them or reinterpret them over and over again. Gulik would spend less time on the overarching themes and more about specific cases.
Writing
The writing was fine. Though this book was from the 60s, I didn’t find it difficult to read. Gulik’s writing style was very easy to comprehend.
The only criticism that was noted by those republishing the book was that they felt that Gulik had very strange romanizations, which I agree with. I am not familiar with Wade-Giles, but I am not even sure if what he was following was Wade-Giles.
Contents
As I mentioned, I thought the beginning chapters were very interesting. As expected, Gulik introduced the readers to the various Taoist and Confucian values and their interpretations on sex.
What I personally found most interesting in these earlier chapters were the parts about marriage, both among commoners and among the noble and royal. In general, people spend more time outside of the bedchamber than inside it, and I wanted to know how people interacted with one another in a time when social relationships were much different from what they are now. The anecdotes provided in these sections were also more interesting as they tended to firmly exemplify certain types of behaviours or tenets.
I felt that the later chapters of the book dragged. Gulik did talk about how the revolving door of rulers changed the attitudes of the general public towards sex and marriage, which was necessary.
However, I felt that in the last few chapters, Gulik spent a lot more time either (1) dissecting texts on the art of the bedchamber or (2) providing anecdotes or pieces of literature about scandalous relationships. With regards to the former, while I understood that Gulik’s aim was to make these texts accessible to the reader, they became rather repetitive, and didn’t really give me more information. As for the latter, while the anecdotes of various love scandals were indeed very juicy, I didn’t learn anything from them. In the previous chapters, the stories provided would tell us about how people thought about sex and marriage, but in the later chapters, the stories told did not really tell me anything about general attitudes towards sex, what was appropriate and inappropriate, etc.
Conclusion
I would still recommend this book to those who are interested in Chinese culture. Even though this book is from the 60s, I feel that it gave us a unique perspective.
Gulik was a Western man, but based on his biography, he’d been living in Asia for a majority of his life, including his formative years. In the 60s, there was no social media or internet, so people could not access books easily, but that also applied to Gulik. So I think that most of what Gulik wrote about was probably from his own research, provided that what he wrote about was truly based on research that he’d done.
I also felt that Gulik was able to keep a mostly politically neutral tone throughout the book. In the year 2021 that I am writing this review, it seems like most non-fiction written about China feels politically charged to some degree. In Gulik’s writing, I felt that he gave Chinese people the proper credit by acknowledging that they were normal people, both with virtues and vices, but also that they were operating in a completely different cultural frame than someone in the West would be.
I am still pleased that I read this book. Like I said, it gave me information both on Chinese culture, and of how people viewed Asia in the 60s.
I would recommend this to people who are interested in Chinese culture. However, I would say that this book is less of a non-fiction book and more of an attempt to be almost an encyclopedia. The reading does get repetitive, particularly towards the end, and I felt that Gulik prioritized being informative over being interesting.
Format
This book covered sexual life in China in chronological order. I think this was the first sign that Gulik intended for this book to be more of a reference or resource book, rather than a novel you would recommend to friends.
Due to the chronological nature of the book, the beginning of the book was far more interesting. In the first few time periods, Gulik introduced all sorts of concepts and philosophies that would tie into Chinese thought and culture. There was much less of this towards the end of the book, and I feel it’s because Gulik observed a lot of the same themes in different dynasties and thus did not seek to explain them or reinterpret them over and over again. Gulik would spend less time on the overarching themes and more about specific cases.
Writing
The writing was fine. Though this book was from the 60s, I didn’t find it difficult to read. Gulik’s writing style was very easy to comprehend.
The only criticism that was noted by those republishing the book was that they felt that Gulik had very strange romanizations, which I agree with. I am not familiar with Wade-Giles, but I am not even sure if what he was following was Wade-Giles.
Contents
As I mentioned, I thought the beginning chapters were very interesting. As expected, Gulik introduced the readers to the various Taoist and Confucian values and their interpretations on sex.
What I personally found most interesting in these earlier chapters were the parts about marriage, both among commoners and among the noble and royal. In general, people spend more time outside of the bedchamber than inside it, and I wanted to know how people interacted with one another in a time when social relationships were much different from what they are now. The anecdotes provided in these sections were also more interesting as they tended to firmly exemplify certain types of behaviours or tenets.
I felt that the later chapters of the book dragged. Gulik did talk about how the revolving door of rulers changed the attitudes of the general public towards sex and marriage, which was necessary.
However, I felt that in the last few chapters, Gulik spent a lot more time either (1) dissecting texts on the art of the bedchamber or (2) providing anecdotes or pieces of literature about scandalous relationships. With regards to the former, while I understood that Gulik’s aim was to make these texts accessible to the reader, they became rather repetitive, and didn’t really give me more information. As for the latter, while the anecdotes of various love scandals were indeed very juicy, I didn’t learn anything from them. In the previous chapters, the stories provided would tell us about how people thought about sex and marriage, but in the later chapters, the stories told did not really tell me anything about general attitudes towards sex, what was appropriate and inappropriate, etc.
Conclusion
I would still recommend this book to those who are interested in Chinese culture. Even though this book is from the 60s, I feel that it gave us a unique perspective.
Gulik was a Western man, but based on his biography, he’d been living in Asia for a majority of his life, including his formative years. In the 60s, there was no social media or internet, so people could not access books easily, but that also applied to Gulik. So I think that most of what Gulik wrote about was probably from his own research, provided that what he wrote about was truly based on research that he’d done.
I also felt that Gulik was able to keep a mostly politically neutral tone throughout the book. In the year 2021 that I am writing this review, it seems like most non-fiction written about China feels politically charged to some degree. In Gulik’s writing, I felt that he gave Chinese people the proper credit by acknowledging that they were normal people, both with virtues and vices, but also that they were operating in a completely different cultural frame than someone in the West would be.
I am still pleased that I read this book. Like I said, it gave me information both on Chinese culture, and of how people viewed Asia in the 60s.