Beijing Shixi Media Co. will begin nationwide broadcasts of a late-night TV talk show about sex next year.

Masks will be broadcast in more than 50 cities, including Beijing, from 11 PM to 1 AM, according to Shixi Media's Chairman Liu Xicheng. Liu, speaking Sunday at a forum in Beijing on sex and AIDS, said the program is the first of its kind in China.

Various guests will appear on the show, wearing masks, to talk about sex. Liu said the hosts of the program would also wear masks.

Liu said he hopes the program will help people with sexual problems and promote safe sex.

While the Chinese are -- at least superficially -- quite conservative about sex, the Durex 2004 Global Sex Survey showed that they have the highest per capita number of sexual partners in the world: 19.3. The global average is just 10.5.

Durex, the world's largest condom maker, dismisses suggestions that the survey samples may be unrepresentative, saying confidential Web polling encourages honesty. Still, few Chinese are convinced.

Dai Zhicheng, head of the Chinese Association of STD Prevention and Control, said that according to a survey conducted by Peking University in 2002, Chinese women averaged only 1.2 sex partners, with 23 percent of them having two or more sex partners.

Sunday's sex and AIDS forum was sponsored by the Beijing People's Radio.

(China Daily November 30, 2004)