By E.M.L.Ng (2001)

It is now ten years after the first Asian Sexology Congress in Hong Kong (1990). The Congress set the foundation of our Federation that has continued to promote the development of Asian sexology. During these ten years, our Federation has run six Asian congresses of sexology, each one well attended not only by our confederates but also by representatives from non-Asian countries and international organizations such as the World Health Organization and the World Association for Sexology (WAS). Our Federation has also produced six issues of the AFS journal (the first few issues in the name of Apollo and Selene), and occasional bulletins. Stimulated by our Federation, many countries or regions had established their own sexology associations and run meaningful sexology activities such as sex educational programs, field trips and training courses sponsored or supported by AFS.

Despite these achievements in line with the Federation’s mission and objectives, there is of course much more waiting for us to do and improve on. For an academic association, the first tens years are just infancy years. If we want to claim that we have grown up, we must begin to plan what a grown up international organization should do. We have to work for making more international contribution and influence, to place Asian sexology onto the important position it deserves, to help to promote sexological knowledge and advancement all over the world. As to how this could be done, members must have many ideas, the following are mine, and some of them I have begun to put into action and all AFS members are welcome to join me:

1. AFS might take up an active role to make Asian voices heard on sexual issues of international concern. Speaking out as a group will add strength to what we say, help people understand the Asian scenario that may be different from all others, and stimulate international discussions or actions to improve sexual problems. With the rapid growth of electronic communication facilities, AFS should be able to take up this role more easily than before. She can form a special task group to take up the duty of communication coordination and representation. The principal and most economical facility to use is the email. Through this task group, the most updated news of sexology could be collected and spread instantly, members’ opinions and voices exchanged and when considered appropriate, official announcements on sexual issues made.

2. As AFS membership has included nearly all of the most important and prominent sexologists in Asia, she might work to set the standard and even provide training for sexology professions in the region. Again, the power of electronic communication should be used. The experts in AFS should design training courses through the internet to train sex educators in schools, AIDS counselors, sex therapists and sexology researchers etc. AFS certification will be awarded on completion of the courses, providing a credible standard and accreditation of sexology training. In return, AFS will get revenue from the course fees, a great help to financing other AFS activities.

In fact, I have started exploring toward this direction in Hong Kong. With the support of WAS, I am trying to get grants from education foundations and the collaboration of established web companies to run local sexology training programs. The initial programs will be for professionals in Hong Kong only, but the future aims will be for Asia and later for all countries in the world. The initial steps have been quite promising and a local program is likely to be implemented soon, but I hope AFS will help me later to expand the course(s) to other Asian countries (with adaptations made by the regional experts of course). Still later, AFS together with WAS, might help the courses to expand outside Asia too.

3. Another desirable development would be for AFS to have a permanent office and a couple of staff to specially take care of the gradually increasing membership and workload. To do this, of course, AFS need to have regular income besides the membership fees. The training courses proposed above, if successful, might be a source. Another source could be to get collaboration again from commercial sectors to establish sex education centres of both educational and commercial value. I am thinking of things like a sex museum, since Asia is full of varieties of sexual culture and relics. If members from various Asian countries could furnish exhibits from time to time, they are likely to sustain a museum attractive to the public and get good revenues. The venue and staff of the museum can serve partly as the AFS office. It must be noted that the exhibits for the “museum” need not all be historical. They could be recent materials to update people on some aspects of sexual life and sex education etc. of a region. I am now applying to the government in Kong Kong to set up such a museum or sex education centre. I am not certain of my chance of success yet, but should I fail, I hope other members of AFS might take up this direction also to help the growth of our Federation and Asian sexology. Should this happen, I shall be the first volunteer to help and I am sure many other members will.

In conclusion, AFS has been doing well, and the hard work of all the members, especially that of the past congress organizers and presidents must be congratulated. Thanks to them all, the foundation has been set. Our future direction, as far as I could envisage, is to build on this foundation of Congresses, bulletins and journals. It is time for us to consolidate one another, through intense coordinated communication and expression of views, and through participation in collaborative projects that could disseminate our knowledge and experience to help to improve the sexual problems in Asia and the world.