My Sex Research Trip to Asia, by Richard Bernstein

[kamui]

My Sex Research Trip to Asia

by Richard Bernstein

 

Read an excerpt of Richard Bernsteinâ??s The East, the West, and Sex: A History of Erotic Encounters.

 

From the streets of Beijing to the girlie bars of Bangkok, my exploration of the erotic tension that links East and West blurred the line separating fantasy and reality.

 

Given that the bookâ??s subject is sex, the natural question Iâ??m asked is what my research was like, and the answer, perhaps disappointing, is that most of it was done over dusty volumes of forgotten lore in the Allen Room of the New York Public Library. But not all of it. There was field research as well, like the evening I spent in Bangkok two years ago when I interviewed the person [color:red]identified in the text as Dave the Rave. He is the British-born manager of AngelWitch[/color], a girlie bar in the Nana Plaza, one of the several places in Bangkok where the historical encounter of sexual cultures that is the bookâ??s main concern is enacted in a vulgar, contemporary way. Most of the customers, who included a fair sprinkling of pasty and potbellied middle-aged men, kept their gaze upon the phantasmagorical scene before them, but I kept my head down in order to note Daveâ??s worldly wise comments in my spiral pad, including his caution against the futile hope of many Western men that they are going to find true love in Bangkok, rather than just sex.

 

 

[color:red]I also interviewed a couple of Thai ex-prostitutes and quite a few American men who had lived the part of my history that took place in post-World War II Asia, especially Vietnam.[/color] In addition to Bangkok and the Thai beach resort of Pattaya, I went to Ho Chi Minh City, Danang, Na Trang, and Haiphong. I visited Singapore, the Malaysian port town of Malacca, and Beijing, where I talked to a half-dozen or so Chinese women on why they prefer Western to local men.

 

[...]

 

Daily Beast

 

[Old Hippie]

Mother fuck this asshole...the typical judgemental crap... "...pasty and potbellied middle-aged men..." like that even matters some how? Are we obese (speaking for myself here) middleaged guys not supposed to enjoy sex? are we all supposed to conform to his view of things? fuck him! and if I didn't mention it, fuck him and the assholes that made him!

 

Here's a news flash for all these "investigative" types...MEN LIKE SEX, I hear even *SOME* Women do as well...we are willing to go where we have to go, pay what we have to pay and do what we have to do to get it...what the fuck is wrong with that? anyone have a email for this twat so I can send him a message telling him to kiss my fat "pot bellied middleaged sex loving ass?" Thanks...

[vinod]

My Sex Research Trip to Asia

by Richard Bernstein

 

From the streets of Beijing to the girlie bars of Bangkok,

... Beijing, where I talked to a half-dozen or so Chinese women on why they prefer Western to local men.

 

 

 

Just half-dozen women and write a book.... a decade back when I was young man maybe i would banged half-dozen women in China in 48 hrs.... if I put all there talking over yrs., of travel to SE Asia & china this would become a big book or lead me to a PhD...

 

Cheers

[jonjon058]

Bernstein put his photo on the top left of the web page with the article where he wrote that bar customers...

 

...included a fair sprinkling of pasty and potbellied middle-aged men,

 

So that means there were others besides just him?

 

 

[USVirgin]

Agreed, as far as hands on experience goes, most here would be more qualified to write a book than him. However (after reading the links) he seems well qualified as a 'researcher.' I'd still only consider buying the book had it been written by someone with both qualifications. I don't want to read crap like, "Poseidon, it is said..." or "I once talked to a bar manager..."

[shygye]

... that is one way to make a trip to Thailand tax deductible.