TravelingPoet
I found during my journey that you should, as a general rule of thumb, view characters as virgins unless EXPLICITLY stated. It doesn't matter if they lived for 1 million years or were married for 3000 years, it doesn't matter if there was some ambiguity between them and another character, it doesn't matter if they were drugged and sealed inside a room with another character, it doesn't matter if the characters is a succubus or even a harlot, as long as it isn't EXPLICITLY stated, then they're a virgin. This rule never failed, it really is ridiculous, but it's the truth. I once read this novel where the woman was a mother but she was still a virgin, I was like, 'Now I have read everything'. Truely the peak of the Dao of Virginity... I guess that's plagiarizing Virgin Mary.

It's in their culture, A man can sleep around all he wants, but a woman sleeping around, even if she was drugged or forced, would be treated as impure. To make matters worse, I once read this Chinese children fable about a woman who refused to get married because the 'heavens' told her to remain pure. Lady, you're getting married not sold to a brothel. If you lose your purity from getting married, then all humans are impure from birth since they come from such an impure act, right? I don't know what they teach their children, seriously...

For those wondering, the impurity argument isn't really valid, just so you know, I was just giving you a natural response.

      SlaveOfTheLord It's in their culture, A man can sleep around all he wants, but a woman sleeping around, even if she was drugged or forced, would be treated as impure.

      This is not just "Chinese" culture. Japanese characters do this in 18+ manga and anime as well. Also, in CEO novels, the rich, handsome and overbearing CEOs are always virgins, they only ever sleep with the female heroines. So it goes both ways and has nothing to do with culture, but more of some weird mentality romanticizes some overly idealized notion of "purity."

          Tomoyuki
          And where did such a mindset come from? It couldn't have appeared out of thin air, could it? Let's be honest, culture does indeed have a role. But, yes you're right, it's not just Chinese, I never said it was just them.

              Nerdy_Joker_101 These three are the last ones you should be soliciting.

              SlaveOfTheLord I wonder if this is a big factor in why Japan is going the way of the dinosaurs? Other than, you know, the obsessive desire to work themselves to death, it's probably one of, if not the biggest issues. The "pure" ideology is brainwashing the populace with the nationally unhealthy drive to maintain their sanctity. The "remain a virgin til you're thirty" meme probably isn't helping much either. It gives the weak-willed an excuse not to procreate.

              As for China though, they probably wish they had more of it. Metric tons more. Too bad their citizenry isn't quite as malleable in that respect. Props to their libido on making their country the most overpopulated, communistic hellhole there is.

                    Nerdy_Joker_101 NEVER.

                    Unless you're willing to pay me US$100 for reading each chapter you've written.

                        ShoeInk
                        Japan's case is really simple, you see, socialising is a skill gained from experience, not from sitting in front of your laptop watching people socialize, it doesn't work that way.

                        So we have a dude who's, let's say, socially awkward, and this dude doesn't interact with people and thus they're unable to get hold of this skill. This dude then becomes afraid of interacting with people, and from some failures in interacting with people, they develop inferiority complex. They shut themselves watching or reading whatever, thinking that they can learn something, but in reality, when it's show time, all their preparations flies away with the wind, resulting in them having yet another failed interaction. So they become even more depressed, in the end, they visit this forest nearby and the next day, 'friends' and family visit their grave.

                        This is quite specific, but a bit of tinkering will prove that the rest of the cases are similar.

                        Yours truly,
                        Nothing came to mind

                            SlaveOfTheLord I meant to say that it's more universal (?) than cultural. It doesn't happen in specific cultures but also all over the world. In fact, I think it might be imported from the West, for example in the Meiji era in the 19th century where Christian values were being embraced. Christianity, in particular, embraced the whole chastity thing (basically you have to marry the girl you sleep with if you took her virginity in Christian tradition, or her father will shoot you with a shotgun), so the whole purity thing is more of a modern thing in Japan and China, and not some ancient tradition stretching back centuries.

                            Also, English speaking Western readers appear to subscribe to this as well - I see comments screaming "NTR!" the moment the heroine or one of the harem members sleep with some other guy. Hypocritically enough, it's all right for the male protagonist to sleep with multiple women, but readers begin raging about NTR the moment a harem member sleeps with another guy. So it's less culture but more of a niche section of the audience all over the world (do we call them incels? I'm not sure), especially those most likely virgins who don't really go out and interact with real women and have this idealistic notion of purity.

                            Most normal Chinese and Japanese, just like most normal Americans or Westerners, don't really care about purity or chastity. Just those "incels" or whatever you call them.

                                Tomoyuki
                                Again, where did such a mindset come from? You're saying Chinese didn't have such traditions? The same people who had three wives and four concubines? Believing that a woman brings great shame to the family if she's discovered to be impure during the coitus? Also, didn't I tell you about this children fable about this woman who refused to get married because the 'heavens' told her to remain pure? You're saying they didn't have this sort of thing?

                                    SlaveOfTheLord No, not really. There are divorced women/wives who marry again. Also, you appear to think that the people who have three wives and four concubines are the majority. Not so. Nobles and rich people constitute a very small minority. The majority consist mostly of peasants and farmers who couldn't care less about purity and chastity because they're too busily trying to survive. They only have one wife because they can't afford any more. And they can't afford to be picky.

                                    Also, isn't that the same across all cultures? Arabian sultans have harems of hundreds of women (and I think Islam has something about purity or virginity too). As does the West. So it's more universal than you think.

                                    You appear to be reading some weird stories and applying their logic across all "Chinese" people, but the reality is a lot more complex than that, especially if you study history.

                                    Also, you completely ignored that I explained how it might be imported from the West through Christian values.

                                        Tomoyuki
                                        I see, so this is what you meant by universal, lol, I had something else in mind. Yes, I did say that it's not just Chinese, didn't I?

                                        Let me explain myself a bit better. What I'm saying here is, culture does play a role in setting people's mindsets, this is what I've been saying the whole time... I'm not arguing if it's only here or there, I'm not arguing where culture came from, what I'm saying is that it does play a role...

                                            SlaveOfTheLord Oh, I see what you mean. I think it's also important to note that noble/rich people culture is different from commoner culture. Not everyone can afford to be picky about their wives and marry concubines. In fact, most people can't - only a very small minority subscribe to such polygamy or virtues of "purity" or whatever. Of course, the nobles look down on commoners, which is ironic when you think about it.

                                                Tomoyuki
                                                Lol, the real irony is that commoners look up to the Wealthy who look down on them. People really like to get abused lol.

                                                    SlaveOfTheLord They have what they don't have, so I don't blame them. I don't like some rich people, but I definitely want to be rich too, ha ha!

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