thestar.com

"We used to emphasize the collective, the whole society, and people neglected their personal feelings to serve society," says Liu Dalin, president of the Shanghai centre. "Now Chinese are paying more attention to their development as healthy individuals and that includes paying more attention to their sexual feelings."

The study also revealed most Chinese are often or sometimes naked during love-making and about half sometimes stray from the so- called missionary position - practises that, while hardly striking for many Westerners, greatly surprised Liu and his fellow researchers.

Not surprisingly, China's educated youth, deeply swayed by Western media and mores, are leading the sexual revolution. More than 10 per cent of the college students surveyed by Liu admitted to having had intercourse and the actual percentage is believed to be much greater.