A Chinese calligrapher has been banned from the China Artists Association for a performance piece featuring women painting with brushes held in their vaginas.
Sun Ping's membership of the professional government-led body has been revoked, with the
group announcing their decision in response to his sexual calligraphy .
The artist shocked art fans with his show, as well as his use of pubic hair for brush pens. Somebody snitched to the Chinese authorities and he was expelled him for
failing to adhere to the national association's artistic standards, claiming that his art is wantonly defiled calligraphy and trampled over civilisation . A statement from the CAA said:
In recent years, Sun Ping
used the name of performance art to promote 'sexual calligraphy' in China and overseas. The general public have looked down upon it. After investigation, his behaviour has indeed caused adverse social impact and great damage to the reputation of
Chinese Artists Association.
Ping argues that his intention was to demonstrate the connection between art, the body and creativity in opposition to China's sexual taboos . He has reportedly been displaying vaginal calligraphy
since 2006 without repercussions, having first joined the CAA in 1985 after graduating from the Guangdong Academy of Fine Arts. He said:
My art may seem ugly and vulgar on the outside because we're clouded by
principles and conventions, but there is also elegance, beauty and inner value. If art is revered then why can't sex be as well? A vagina is too often labelled as vulgar but it is where we all come from.
The Ugandan cabinet has approved new anti-pornography laws that bar supposedly obscene publications and the staging of erotic and nude drama and dances in the country.
The laws also prohibit the broadcast of sexually explicit material in form of
still pictures video footage and vulgar utterances by presenters on broadcast media.
Representatives of the Eros Association, an Australian adult trade group, told a Senate committee looking into the so-called nanny state , its members were suffering because of restrictions on what they could sell.
While they couldn't sell
films depicting certain consensual sex acts, people could still stream them online. Eros business manager Joel Murray told a hearing:
They simply download it or order it from overseas. That's money that doesn't enter
the Australian economy. So from an economic perspective it doesn't make sense.
He also criticised the limited list of acceptable practices and fetishes, with many of those not included discriminating against the gay, lesbian, bisexual
and transgender community.
The restrictions of businesses selling adult entertainment are so severe that they are proving unviable. There were only two businesses in the ACT (Canberra) that had X18+ licences and they soon would give them up, he
warned. The X18+ licence fee in the ACT ranges from $15,000 to $31,000, with having single films classified costing more than $1000.
The association also raised concerns about state laws that ban the sales of porn in all the major states. Adults
can buy and possess X18+ films (with the exception of Western Australia), but only adult stores in the ACT and Northern Territories can sell them.
The Ugandan Government has established a Pornography Control Committee which will be tasked with, among other things, ensuring early detection and prohibition of dissemination of pornography. The commitee will work with the minstry of ethics and
integrity, the Uganda Police Force and any other agencies of individuals that it feels will help it.
According to the Minister of Information and National Guidance, Jim Muhwezi, the committee will help curb the problem of pornography that has eroded
the African moral fabric.
The nine member committee will be chaired by Dr Anette Kasimbazi Kezaabu and its other members will include Pastor Martin Ssempa , Sheikh Mohammad Ali Waiswa among others.
The Maharashtra Legislative Council has unanimously cleared the Bill to impose onerous conditions on dance bars in Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra without any debate.
The Bill will now be introduced in the Assembly where it is likely to be passed
without any opposition.
As per the draft bill, dance bars have not been totally banned but repressive conditions have been imposed to ensure that no owner comes forward to actually set up a dance bar. The conditions are:
All performances will have to be approved by the censor board for theatre performances.
Approximately five feet distance must be maintained between customers and dancers.
Performers cannot be touched by anyone and neither money nor
gifts can be showered on them.
The stage will be isolated from customers by a three-foot wall.
liquor will not be served where the performance is on.
No more than four dancers can perform on a platform at a time.
A
performance cannot be vulgar, the bill does not specify the definition of vulgar.
All dancers should be 21 years old.
Dance bars cannot be opened in a residential area.