title: The Lived Experiences of Sexual Desire Among Chinese-Canadian Men and Women.
abstract: How North American Chinese conceptualize and experience sexual desire is not well understood, and may have implications for understanding cross-cultural differences in sexual functioning. This study examined narratives of sexual desire among Chinese men and women in Canada. Ten each of Chinese men (age: M = 24.0, range = 18-42) and women (age: M = 23.5, range = 19-38) took part in semi-structured interviews in which they were invited to share personal accounts of sexual desire. A phenomenological analysis of participants' responses showed men and women described desire as having genital, nongenital-physical, and cognitive-emotional components. Chinese cultural prohibitions against sexuality, particularly pronounced in women, were a common inhibitor of desire. Relationship factors appeared as a frequently endorsed context and target of desire. These findings suggest that relationship context is of paramount importance in Chinese individuals and that previous findings of low sexual functioning in this group may be due to inhibition from cultural factors. However, the experience of desire in Chinese individuals is also in many ways similar to that of existing conceptualizations from Western samples.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of British Columbia , Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada.
authors.forename: Silvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dang
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of British Columbia , Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: b Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology , University of British Columbia , Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada.
authors.forename: Lori A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Brotto
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D044466:Asian People / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology*; D001955:British Columbia; D002681:China; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D054525:Minority Health; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012737:Sex Factors; D000074384:Sexual Health / Q000208:ethnology; D019529:Sexuality / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult