M.L.Ng (1998)
Foundation President, Asian Federation for Sexology

May 18-22, 1990 is an important date for sexologists in Asia. It was the first time they could meet and exchange their knowledge and experience directly in a conference specially organized for them, the Conference on Sexuality in Asia.

The thought of organizing the conference came to me many years before, when I attended world sexology congresses and found that Asian participants were usually few. I was also quite disappointed to see that there were regional sexology federations or conferences for Europe, North and South America and Australia, but not for Asia. Surely, being the largest of the five continents, Asia has her own sexologists and a sex culture that could offer important contributions to sexology. Asian countries have many things in common too. They need a platform on which they could exchange information and learn from one another the many possible ways of coping with sexual problems under the waves of population growth, modernization and sexually transmitted diseases, especially AIDS.

In 1985, with the help of fellow sex educators in Hong Kong, I established the Hong Kong Sex Education Association. It is a learned society aiming originally to stimulate the local government or semi-government bodies to run their sex education in a faster pace and less conservative manner than what they have been doing. Its members have come mainly from the professionals, such as teachers, social workers, medical doctors, nurses, psychologists and philosophers, but there are also some non-professionals who are just concerned parents. The members meet regularly to exchange and update their knowledge on sex education and make critical or advisory comments to social policies relating to sex. Their views have exerted influences on the sex education curriculum in the primary and secondary schools, the decriminisation of homosexuality, the drafting of the laws to control obscene or indecent articles, public sex education on AIDS, sexual abuse and harassment and in many other sexual issues of concern in the territory. Through collaboration with public or commercial bodies, members of the association have also helped in the production of sex education materials, sex education courses for youths and teachers, and the running of sex education workshops and exhibitions on different scales and
topics.

After a few years of consolidation, the association began to go outside Hong Kong to organize or participate in small sex education meetings and conferences abroad, coming into contact with sexologists from various parts of Asia, including China, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, India and some others. Having these important contacts and their support, it solicited sponsorship from the University of Hong Kong (Center of Asian Studies), the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists and a pharmaceutical company to organize the Conference on Sexuality in Asia.

The conference is for me a forever memorable one. I was deeply moved by the enthusiastic response of all the participants. With a limited budget, the meeting venue, arrangement and facilities were far from ideal, but the excitement and reward of getting together and of communicating and sharing seemed to have made all participants lenient to the imperfections. We decided that good things should not be allowed to end and that we must get hold of the opportunity to strengthen Asian sexology from a much longer term perspective. Hence, at the end of the conference, the organizing committee of the Asian Federation for Sexology was formed. It consisted of all the key persons from the participating regions and eminent guests from outside Asia as advisors. A draft of the constitution was made and I was given the task to establish and register the Federation in Hong Kong.

The registration was completed after two years. The Federation was officially established and announced in the Second Asian Conference of Sexology held in Shanghai in 1992. Subsequent Asian Conferences were held in 1994 in New Delhi and 1996 in Taipei. All who have hosted the conference agree that the activity helps to promote sex education and widen the public’s horizon about sexuality in their own regions. Future conferences are planned to be in Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo.

It is very heartening to see that the Federation has been growing strong ever since its foundation. There has been an increasing number of members, and more importantly, enthusiastic members from more regions who have been able to work hard and unselfishly for the good of the Federation. Besides the biennial conference, through the effort of the Federation, many publications, regional symposia, research projects and collaborations by Asian sexologists have come to realization and many more are on the way, promising to be of even higher quality. The Federation has also worked closer and closer with the World Association for Sexology, putting Asian Sexology prominently on the international front.

Obviously, our Federation is still young and there is much room for it to further improve. Yet with the track records of all those who have contributed to its development, including the many Presidents and Vice-presidents who have succeeded me, I have no doubt that it will become even better in the century to come and that my hope for a strong Asian sexology organization will soon be realized.