Word: wu
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...shrugs. The sex toy king of China doesn't judge. It's bad for business. With his crew cut, oversize glasses, blue jeans and phlegmatic manner, 33-year-old Wu looks like a teenager slouching in the back of sex-ed class?but he's an empire builder emblematic of China's growing entrepreneurial class. His company, headquartered in the industrial city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province, is China's only major government- licensed erotica manufacturer. The plant daily pumps out some 10,000 sex toys destined for bedroom drawers worldwide, but Wu and his Japanese venture partner have grander...
...Neither does Wu, a native of Wenzhou, long renowned for producing hard-nosed businessmen. His concerns are familiar to entrepreneurs the world over: competition, innovation and industrial espionage. Boosted by an e-commerce website, sales were up 1,200% last year, half of the total accounted for by exports. Wu attributes rapid growth in part to advanced R. and D. With the help of his Japanese partner (the Japanese are, unsurprisingly, the leaders in sex toy innovation), he is developing unusual products to fill new niches of sexual proclivity-and not just farm animals. Works-in-progress include a "lovebot...
...mouths shaped in a permanent 'O,' as if surprised to find themselves rolling off the production line of a dingy Chinese factory. The sheer variety of sex toys, both anatomically correct and physiologically implausible, being readied for shipment from Wenzhou Loves Health Products is disturbing. But as company president Wu Wei says, "Everyone has their own taste." Which, hopefully, explains the inflatable cow?a black-spotted Holstein?tucked in the corner. "The cow is ordered by European companies," Wu says, "maybe because Westerners treat animals more equally...
...aids is expanding at a pace that can only be described as blistering. The communist era of enforced asceticism and prudery has been giving way to more liberal, if not libertine, attitudes. After Beijing legalized the sale of sex toys in 1994, "I knew that sex could be sold," Wu says. Even so, when he applied for a license, he soft-pedaled, pushing to get his wares classified as medical devices. "I wanted to promote the product as a tool for social stability," he says, "something that could help teenagers who want to experiment with sex, cut down on STDs...
...Like Wu, Wen Jing Feng, president of the Beijing-based Adam Eve Health Centers, is trying to ensure China is not left behind in the race to perfect the vibrator. During a question-and-answer segment at last month's Boao Economic Forum, a regional summit held on Hainan Island, Wen urged Prime Minister Zhu Rongji to work with Thailand on a sex industry technology-transfer agreement. To the amusement of the audience, Zhu said that sex was not on the agenda...