Singapore to air first sex talk show this month

SINGAPORE, Sept. 6 Kyodo

Singapore will get its first talk show on sex on a local television channel this month -- a sign that the city-state is loosening its strict censorship rules, a state-owned television station said Tuesday.

''Love Airways,'' billed by a local producer as the country's first sex education-cum-entertainment show, will be broadcast every Wednesday from Sept. 21.

The interactive show promises to openly give tips on the art of lovemaking and feature ordinary people talking about their sex lives and fantasies on television.

The show is the brainchild of Wei Siang Yu, a 36-year-old physician better known as ''Dr. Love'' because of the various projects he launched in recent years that openly dispenses advice to couples, young and old, on solving their sex problems.

The activities of the flamboyant doctor have apparently been welcomed by the authorities in Singapore, which is struggling with one of the world's lowest fertility rates.

A series of 13 weekly shows has been planned, each lasting 30 minutes, and will be shown in Mandarin to cater to the country's majority ethnic Chinese. MediaCorp, the state-owned television station, will air the program, to be produced by Wei.

''This is the first of its kind late-night TV show with the aim to educate sex and intimacy-related topics from dating, anatomy, sexual wellness to sexually transmitted diseases,'' MediaCorp TV said in a statement.

''We will be able to see people expressing their fantasies and role playing their fantasies on TV, that is new,'' Wei said.

''We are talking about 20 to 30 years of very paternalistic kind of system and now is the chance for people to talk, which is important because not only are we facing a low birth rate, we are facing a high divorce rate, low sex frequency and low quality of sex,'' he said.

Wei said the Health Promotion Board, a government agency, is supporting the show. Wei said it took almost a year to convince the government about the show.

''Anything on sexuality, it's totally new to the Singapore government. It takes a while because it's such a sensitive subject,'' Wei said.

His interactive show will use multi-media that will allow viewers to take part in discussion.

Wei also plans to help Singaporeans perk up their sex lives by featuring visits to couple's homes and advising how even the type of furniture they use can make a difference in their sex lives.

In 2003, a Singapore radio station was fined S$15,000 (about

$8,955) for featuring explicit discussion on sexual experiences during a breakfast program.

But in recent times, Singapore, which has been dubbed a nanny state because of severe government controls, has loosened some of its censorship laws in a bid to promote a more cosmopolitan image.

It has also lifted a ban on a popular U.S. women's magazine Cosmopolitan, which must be wrapped in plastic when sold on the shelves, and also removed a ban on the popular U.S. TV series ''Sex and the City.'' Singapore still bans Playboy magazine and snips racy scenes from movies in cinemas and cable TV.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Kyodo News International, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning