DONGGUAN, China—China is estimated to supply more than 80 percent of the world’s sex toys, and manufacturers there are leading the charge when it comes to technology and improvements.
More than 1 million people are employed in a business estimated at more than $6.6 billion annually in China, and sex dolls are a significant part of that industry.
In the past, sex dolls have been entirely functional and designed purely as sex toys. They were a garish pink and looked vaguely human with a mouth and intimate bits like a startled trout. New technology, including robotics and Artificial Intelligence, online shopping and a new breed of discerning customer have driven the need for far more realistic sex dolls.
Many companies, including the 6Ye Premium Doll Factory, makers of the Amor Doll, have embraced the trend towards new-age sex dolls.
6Ye Premium products are principally manufactured for export. A domestic variant, the 6Ye Doll is sold only in China. The flagship export product, the recently introduced Amor Doll, is thought to have the most perfect vagina placement of all sex dolls. All Amor Dolls are handmade and need input from at least five workers. The factory employs 50, mainly female, full-time workers.
We visited the 6Ye Premium sex doll factory and warehouse in Dongguan in Southern China with one of the largest sex doll retailers worldwide, SSD (officially known as SexySexDoll.com). 6Ye are considered by many to manufacture some of the most realistic new-age sex dolls in China.
Our first glimpse of the warehouse showed it stacked with row upon row of voluptuous new age sex dolls being worked on by skilled artists intent on bringing them to life. Eddie, general manager at Amor Doll and the 6Ye Factory, said the goal is creating the most beautiful and most human-like new-age love doll possible. We saw artists making human-size clay model moulds while others assembled a skeleton with exposed wires and joints.
Each doll is handmade and needs input from at least five workers with a great deal of attention to detail. As Eddie said,
“My goal is to make a top-class, realistic sex doll that is so life-like that people would stop to stare at it, not sure if it is a real person,” he said.
To meet with customer expectations, the dolls are customizable. Apart from the bits you would expect, you can specify ethnicity (African, Caucasian or Oriental), height, bust (B to N-Cup), the degree of hairiness in the important places and skin and hair colour. There are dozens of different sex doll body shapes and over 40 faces to choose from. When we were there, different moulds for various body types were scattered about on the factory floor.
Given that range of choice, Eddie told us that the most popular dolls are tan-skinned, between 155 and 170cm tall and with disproportionately large breasts.
Customers reviews are, in general, very favorable. The e-commerce site, SexySexDoll has a review space. One anonymous user is quoted as remarking, “The material is quite good, very soft to the touch. When I hold her, I feel very comfortable.”
Other users, members of a group called “friends of dolls,” speak among themselves, sharing reviews and advice. They are also active on other dedicated online forums.
In the past, Government policy rewarded families with only one child, and Chinese tradition has a preference for male children. As a result, selective abortion of a female fetus was common in China. This ensured that there are 14 percent more men than women.
“China has a shortage of women, and this is a factor in why there’s this demand, but they’re not just for sex,” Eddie said. His customers include single and married men of all ages.
With hindsight, visiting Dongguan was very important considering China’s current gender chaos. Dongguan is a major manufacturing centre in Southern China and is considered to be typical of China’s skewed gender relations. Most of the factory workers are female, and visiting executives are usually male, on-site for a few months leaving wives and families behind. After-work revels inevitably follow in karaoke bars clubs and brothels. Dongguan earned itself the nickname of “Eastern Amsterdam.”
Observers consider that, in a similar way to Silicon Valley, Dongguan has grown in importance because of globalization and general business expansion but that it is still typical of China in its unwavering rampant sexism. What could be more fitting than Dongguan making the sex dolls that will propel China into the next stage of its gender battles.
Those battles in Dongguan tend to revolve around the concerns in both China and the West as to whether using sex dolls disparages women and leads to an increase in violence against them. Female activists push this theory forward with vigour. On the other hand, a typical male reaction is that using a sex doll will reduce the incidence of rape by removing the unmet desire for sexual relief, and thereby also reduce sex trafficking. They also say that sex dolls will reduce the power of women over men by providing an alternative outlet for finding sexual relief.
As might be expected, Eddie holds the male view:
“That isn’t the view of most men. Look at the doll, isn’t it beautiful, a true work of art. Society becomes worse, not because of dolls, but because of social problems. The shortage of women means that many men can’t find a partner, and that’s society’s fault. Don’t blame the sex doll industry, it in fact helps find an outlet for their sexual needs and benefits society. Men don’t need prostitutes anymore, and that helps to reduce the number of rapes. Obviously, the dolls need to be of fully-grown mature women, so we cannot see any difficulties or problems with them.
The same things happen in Western countries. Women are economically independent, and don’t need a man to keep them in a good life. There are lots of lonely men in the rich West, and our sex dolls help them to manage their loneliness.”
The problems in society generated by the gender gap are already visible. China’s bachelors have lower self-esteem and higher levels of depression and aggression which together are contributing to an increase in violent crime. There is a resistance towards the growing numbers of highly-educated females entering the workforce that is fuelling a nostalgic yearning for the subservient and submissive women of years past. There seems to be a view in both China and the West among some men that women are too strong and should be subservient and submissive.
Eddie doesn’t believe that sex dolls will replace women entirely. His view is that the Amor Doll is so beautiful that while men will not be able to resist them, they will not fulfil their need for affection. However, having said that, some single men unable to find a mate and widowers will find comfort in the Amor Doll. He suggests it is best to take it case by case.
That debate will continue as new-age sex dolls become more popular and thanks to robotics and artificial intelligence, more lifelike. One of 6Ye Premium’s major competitors, DS Doll from Dallas have already brought programmable dolls to market. Smartphone apps allow a limited range of speech and movement.
Eddie has an interesting and different take on the future of the new-age Sex Doll:
“Our dolls are basically for sex. That is their purpose. They have limbs that move easily to put them in the perfect position, they are very realistic in the anatomical details and appearance, they have a beautiful face and figure. There is a future with AI, but it’s not an essential. In fact some customers say they prefer love dolls because they don’t talk.”
He expects that immediate developments are to improve movability and realism. In the longer term, new-age sex dolls will be as realistic as the human body, particularly in respect of assuming a position that the customer wants. However, what he can do must be within the limits of the female anatomy and keeping the sex doll affordable. He envisages robotic dolls first, then dolls with Artificial Intelligence following if they perceive a market for them.
Overall, he does not consider that new-age sex dolls are a threat to the place of women in society. They will never fully replace women.
His final comment in a country desperate to increase the birth rate and maintain a stellar economic growth rate- “sex dolls don’t give you babies.”
For more, visit SexySexDoll.com, 6Ye Premium or Amor Doll.
