Re-Embedding Sexual Meanings: A Qualitative Comparison of the Premarital Sexual Scripts of Chinese and Japanese Young Adults

Abstract

Through a comparison of the premarital sexual scripts of Chinese and Japanese young adults, we propose a general framework for cross-culturally comparing sexual scripts. Based on a breakdown of narrative structure into six narrative components—act, context, purpose, actors, agency and consequences—this narrative component method of comparison provides a way of accounting for the considerable differences in Japanese and Chinese premarital sexual norms. Both Chinese and Japanese students’ normative cultural scenarios for entry into sexual intercourse situate sexual intercourse within a “love” relationship; but narrative component analysis reveals key differences in the construction of acts, agents and contexts. Both the Japanese and Chinese findings point to a process of re-embedding sexual behavior in sexual scripts associated with a narrower scope of relational purposes and specific social contexts. The differential embedding of sexual scripts in an idealized relational context is shown to be relevant for the cultural construction of sexual agency.