Beijing:
In public, he was a twice-divorced computer science professor dedicated to his students and to caring for an elderly mother who suffers from Alzheimer's disease.
In private, the professor, Ma Yaohai, 53, led a life that became intolerable to Chinese authorities: for the past six years, he was a member of informal swingers clubs that practiced group sex and partner swapping. In online chat rooms, his handle was Roaring Virile Fire. He organized and engaged in at least 18 orgies, most of them in the two-bedroom apartment in Nanjing where he lived with his mother, according to prosecutors.
On Thursday, a court sentenced the randy Mr. Ma to three and a half years in prison, a severe penalty for a crime that the Chinese government calls "crowd licentiousness." Mr. Ma, now China's most famous swinger, remains defiant and plans to appeal, saying his sex life is his own business, not subject to the law as long as he causes no social disturbance, according to his lawyer, Yao Yong'an.
"Privacy needs to be protected," Mr. Yao said in an interview.
The case of Mr. Ma, who was arrested in August and went on trial last month, has drawn attention across China not only for its titillating details, but also because it raises questions about an authoritarian government's attempts to curb sexual freedom and limit privacy in a society where rapid economic growth and the ubiquity of the Internet have upended traditional values.
Brothels -- often thinly disguised as hair salons or massage parlors -- and shops selling sex toys proliferate across cities and even in many villages, and premarital sex is common among young couples.
Tens of thousands of Chinese engage in swinging (or partner swapping, which is a more direct translation of the relevant Chinese term), according to Li Yinhe, China's most prominent sexologist. One Web site, Happy Village, has a chat forum openly dedicated to swinging.
In an interview with Chinese reporters after his arrest, Mr. Ma, a slim man with an angular face and black-rimmed glasses, defended his lifestyle.
"Marriage is like water," he said. "You have to drink it. Swinging is like wine. Some people feel it's delicious the first time they try it, so they keep drinking. Some people try it and think it tastes bad, so they never drink it again. It's completely voluntary. No one is forcing you."
The Communist Party no longer maintains the kind of tight control over people's private lives that it did decades ago. Yet, some officials still try to prosecute citizens based on laws that seem increasingly out of step with social mores. One example is Criminal Law 301, under which Mr. Ma and 21 fellow swingers were prosecuted, and which can result in a five-year prison term for defendants who are convicted.
Chinese Internet users and even some official news organizations have debated the case. Legal scholars say the Qinhuai District Court, which tried Mr. Ma, took an unusually long time to reach the verdict, which could indicate that judicial officials had to weigh a variety of legal and political factors in deciding how to enforce this law.
"Because this has raised such a debate, it means that people are increasingly aware that their sexual rights and freedoms are being encroached upon," said Ms. Li, who this March unsuccessfully lobbied legislative advisers to abolish the law. Ms. Li is a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
"I feel that the thought process of the Chinese authorities is always to try to manage and control the population, the people," she added. "Beyond prosecuting criminal activities, they feel they have to control or manage people to their standards."
The law against group sex, generally interpreted by judges as involving three or more people, is left over from an earlier law against "hooliganism" that was used to prosecute people who had sex outside of marriage, Ms. Li said. The hooliganism law was scrapped in 1997. One notable swingers case took place in the early 1980s, when the leader of a swingers club involving four middle-aged couples was executed, she added.
At least three recent surveys have shown that the prosecution of people who engage in group sex does not enjoy widespread support today.
Several Chinese news Web sites posted editorials echoing that sentiment after the verdict was announced.
"This kind of behavior is a citizen's personal freedom; this is a part of the private rights of citizens," wrote one author, Yi Bo, on a site maintained by the propaganda department of Shanxi Province.
Mr. Ma did not answer calls seeking comment after the verdict.
In earlier interviews with Chinese reporters, Mr. Ma told the tale of how he joined the swinging subculture. After two divorces, Mr. Ma began trying to meet women through the Internet. He traded messages with a 23-year-old woman with the online name Passionate Fiery Phoenix. She later arrived in Nanjing and told Mr. Ma that she was traveling the country looking for other swingers.
The two moved in together. On New Year's Day in 2004, they tried their first swinging experience as a pair with a couple in a small town in Jiangsu Province. The four played strip poker, then tried switching partners. But Mr. Ma suffered a bout of impotence.
"When it really came down to it, I was just so nervous," he told a reporter.
Eventually, though, he got over his anxieties. In 2007, he started an Internet chat room called "Independent Travel for Husbands, Wives and Lovers." In online chats, people call him Teacher Ma. Membership has grown to more than 200.
Mr. Ma told reporters that the largest sex grouping in which he had taken part involved four couples.
The police arrested Mr. Ma after they raided a hotel room in Nanjing last August and detained five people on suspicion of partner swapping. The detainees handed the officers a long list of names of other swingers that included Mr. Ma's. Officials eventually charged 22 people with 35 acts of crowd licentiousness between 2007 and 2009, 18 of which Mr. Ma had organized or engaged in, they said. Mr. Ma was the only defendant who refused to plead guilty.
The Associated Press reported that at the start of the two-day trial on April 7, Mr. Ma blurted out: "How can I disturb social order? What happens in my house is a private matter."
Mr. Ma has resigned his teaching job at the Nanjing University of Technology and says he now lives off his savings and his mother's pension.
"Work will definitely be difficult to find," he said in an earlier interview with a Chinese reporter. "Maybe I can become a commercial spokesman for adult toys."
In private, the professor, Ma Yaohai, 53, led a life that became intolerable to Chinese authorities: for the past six years, he was a member of informal swingers clubs that practiced group sex and partner swapping. In online chat rooms, his handle was Roaring Virile Fire. He organized and engaged in at least 18 orgies, most of them in the two-bedroom apartment in Nanjing where he lived with his mother, according to prosecutors.
On Thursday, a court sentenced the randy Mr. Ma to three and a half years in prison, a severe penalty for a crime that the Chinese government calls "crowd licentiousness." Mr. Ma, now China's most famous swinger, remains defiant and plans to appeal, saying his sex life is his own business, not subject to the law as long as he causes no social disturbance, according to his lawyer, Yao Yong'an.
"Privacy needs to be protected," Mr. Yao said in an interview.
The case of Mr. Ma, who was arrested in August and went on trial last month, has drawn attention across China not only for its titillating details, but also because it raises questions about an authoritarian government's attempts to curb sexual freedom and limit privacy in a society where rapid economic growth and the ubiquity of the Internet have upended traditional values.
Brothels -- often thinly disguised as hair salons or massage parlors -- and shops selling sex toys proliferate across cities and even in many villages, and premarital sex is common among young couples.
Tens of thousands of Chinese engage in swinging (or partner swapping, which is a more direct translation of the relevant Chinese term), according to Li Yinhe, China's most prominent sexologist. One Web site, Happy Village, has a chat forum openly dedicated to swinging.
In an interview with Chinese reporters after his arrest, Mr. Ma, a slim man with an angular face and black-rimmed glasses, defended his lifestyle.
"Marriage is like water," he said. "You have to drink it. Swinging is like wine. Some people feel it's delicious the first time they try it, so they keep drinking. Some people try it and think it tastes bad, so they never drink it again. It's completely voluntary. No one is forcing you."
The Communist Party no longer maintains the kind of tight control over people's private lives that it did decades ago. Yet, some officials still try to prosecute citizens based on laws that seem increasingly out of step with social mores. One example is Criminal Law 301, under which Mr. Ma and 21 fellow swingers were prosecuted, and which can result in a five-year prison term for defendants who are convicted.
Chinese Internet users and even some official news organizations have debated the case. Legal scholars say the Qinhuai District Court, which tried Mr. Ma, took an unusually long time to reach the verdict, which could indicate that judicial officials had to weigh a variety of legal and political factors in deciding how to enforce this law.
"Because this has raised such a debate, it means that people are increasingly aware that their sexual rights and freedoms are being encroached upon," said Ms. Li, who this March unsuccessfully lobbied legislative advisers to abolish the law. Ms. Li is a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
"I feel that the thought process of the Chinese authorities is always to try to manage and control the population, the people," she added. "Beyond prosecuting criminal activities, they feel they have to control or manage people to their standards."
The law against group sex, generally interpreted by judges as involving three or more people, is left over from an earlier law against "hooliganism" that was used to prosecute people who had sex outside of marriage, Ms. Li said. The hooliganism law was scrapped in 1997. One notable swingers case took place in the early 1980s, when the leader of a swingers club involving four middle-aged couples was executed, she added.
At least three recent surveys have shown that the prosecution of people who engage in group sex does not enjoy widespread support today.
Several Chinese news Web sites posted editorials echoing that sentiment after the verdict was announced.
"This kind of behavior is a citizen's personal freedom; this is a part of the private rights of citizens," wrote one author, Yi Bo, on a site maintained by the propaganda department of Shanxi Province.
Mr. Ma did not answer calls seeking comment after the verdict.
In earlier interviews with Chinese reporters, Mr. Ma told the tale of how he joined the swinging subculture. After two divorces, Mr. Ma began trying to meet women through the Internet. He traded messages with a 23-year-old woman with the online name Passionate Fiery Phoenix. She later arrived in Nanjing and told Mr. Ma that she was traveling the country looking for other swingers.
The two moved in together. On New Year's Day in 2004, they tried their first swinging experience as a pair with a couple in a small town in Jiangsu Province. The four played strip poker, then tried switching partners. But Mr. Ma suffered a bout of impotence.
"When it really came down to it, I was just so nervous," he told a reporter.
Eventually, though, he got over his anxieties. In 2007, he started an Internet chat room called "Independent Travel for Husbands, Wives and Lovers." In online chats, people call him Teacher Ma. Membership has grown to more than 200.
Mr. Ma told reporters that the largest sex grouping in which he had taken part involved four couples.
The police arrested Mr. Ma after they raided a hotel room in Nanjing last August and detained five people on suspicion of partner swapping. The detainees handed the officers a long list of names of other swingers that included Mr. Ma's. Officials eventually charged 22 people with 35 acts of crowd licentiousness between 2007 and 2009, 18 of which Mr. Ma had organized or engaged in, they said. Mr. Ma was the only defendant who refused to plead guilty.
The Associated Press reported that at the start of the two-day trial on April 7, Mr. Ma blurted out: "How can I disturb social order? What happens in my house is a private matter."
Mr. Ma has resigned his teaching job at the Nanjing University of Technology and says he now lives off his savings and his mother's pension.
"Work will definitely be difficult to find," he said in an earlier interview with a Chinese reporter. "Maybe I can become a commercial spokesman for adult toys."
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