Love Pearls-A Story of Discovery-Part 2

What Are Love Pearls Exactly?

The technical term for "Love Pearls" is "Genital Beads". They are also called "Penile Implants" or in medical terms "Artificial Penile Implant Nodules".
Genital Beads are round spherical balls that are made in a variety of sizes and can be constructed from many different of materials, including titanium, gold, silver, jade, precious stones, pearls, glass, plastic polymers, stainless steel and ceramic products. ( Cohen EL, Kim SW. Subcutaneous artificial penile nodules. British Journal of Urology 1982; 127:135)
Genital Beads have also been known to be constructed from ivory, tin and individual grains of rice

What is Genital Beading? aka "Love Pearling"?

Genital beading is "a process of body modification which involves the implantation of beads under the subcutaneous tissue of the penis" leading to "a condition best defined as artificial penile modules". (Nitidandhaprabhas P, 1975, Artificial Penile Nodules: Case Reports from Thailand: British Journal of Urology: 47:4: 463-463)
In other terms, Genital beading involves implanting beads just under the skin tissue along the shaft of the penis. These beads may be implanted by themselves alone or along with many others to create different patterns on the penis shaft.

Historical Narratives of Love Pearls

The earliest written records of "Love Pearling" come from the writings of the Chinese Muslim scholar Ma Huan 馬歡, who accompanied Admiral Zheng He on his voyages to the Western Oceans between 1405-1433 during the Ming Dynasty. Ma Huan travelled on three of the seven naval expeditions and took notes about the people geography, socio-economics, and the traditions and customs of the lands visited.
In 1451 he published an account of his travels titled "The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores" where he described the practices of love pearling of the local Dai people (now in present day PRC, Thailand, and Laos) which were originally performed as rituals celebrating age or class status.

"...when a man reached his twentieth year they take the skin on his membrum virile and with a fine knife and open it up and insert a dozen tin beads inside the skin....they close it up using medicinal herbs so that it resembles a cluster of grapes....."
"...If it is a King or Chief or wealthy man, they use gold to make hollow beads wherein they place a grain of rice inside.....this makes a tinkling sound and is regarded as very beautiful...."
(Ma. H , The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores 1433, 1451, translated by J.V.G. Mills, London 1970)

From the late 16th Century onwards the practice of Love Pearling spread from South East Asia to China proper and from China proper towards Korea and eventually Japan. By the 21st Century the practice of Love Pearling became firmly established across South and North-East Asia. However its original ceremonial and class meanings became removed from its practice, which has evolved into one largely used for its aphrodisiac value. (Sun Laichena; Burmese bells and Chinese eroticism: Southeast Asia's cultural influence on China, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (2007), 38:247-273 Cambridge University Press) 
Today, Love Pearls are used across the Asia Pacific region, from Indonesia to Vietnam, to Phillipines, from PRC and Taiwan to Korea and Japan, through to Burma, Laos and Thailand.

Comments

MojoRider said…
That helps shatter the stereotypes of Asian men being asexual or effemninate eunuchs!

Unusual topic, but nice history lesson nonetheless...
J said…
Wow, who knew that this was going on? Seriously what would compel a guy to do that? I'm cringing just reading this article.

Still... very interesting! Can't wait for part 3.
anna123 said…
Mojo;

Glad you liked the History Lesson...


James;

Hey are you serious? lol, this is our Asian heritage!! Asian Men Pleasing Asian Women during Love making using enhanced aphrodisiacs!!! lol Plus the YaZhou ladies love this!!
MojoRider said…
Speaking of Asian men's sexuality, I just saw something rather curious. I was flipping thru some TV channels after work and came across a movie called "Little Fish" that showed Dustin Nguyen and Cate Blanchett naked and making out in a shower. Link to it on imdb:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382810/

THAT was refreshing to see--not so much that it was an Asian guy with a caucasian woman but that the Asian guy wasn't neutered.

The only bad part is that Nguyen's role was that of a criminal. I only caught part of the movie but at least the treatment of Nguyen's character wasn't really stereotypical (at least from what little of the movie I saw). Looks like it was an Australian movie as well so that is doubly surprising to me. I guess there are a lot more worldly Aussies who aren't so xenophobic?
J said…
Looks like it was an Australian movie as well so that is doubly surprising to me. I guess there are a lot more worldly Aussies who aren't so xenophobic?

I don't know about that... perhaps Anna can shed some light on this?
MojoRider said…
Again, I didn't see the move in its entirely...but also, my experiences with some Aussies have not been that great, but I don't want to paint with a too broad a brush. Some people you meet are cool, some are jerks. I have had friends who have been to Australia that tell me that Aussie men can be very chauvenistic.

But to get back to my point, I thought it was refreshing to see an Asian male being portrayed as sexual. When was the last time an American produced movie showed that Asian males are more than just delivery guys or sinister organized crime thugs?
anna123 said…
Mojo,

Yes i've seen that film...it was shot in my "hometown" actually, but some voices criticised the portrayal(esp. those in Cabramatta) of the area and the asian australians in the film.

Youve really got to grow up around here to understand ...on a personal note, i thought the film was garbage, typical anglo propaganda.

Asian gangster? check.
Asian drugdealers? check.
Area full of Asians who are all drugdealers ang gangsters speaking non english language? check.
Asian drug dealing gangster male turning a white aussie chick into a junkie? check.


Not to sound harsh but Just cause the asian guy fucks a white female in the film doesnt mean equality! lol

James,

I usually take the view that people are people, we are all individuals. However the mainstream(read white anglo *heterosexual patriarchy*) Australian culture is based on racist foundations and in many regards it still very racist and pro white supremacy.Full of white privilege, white power, institutionalised white supremacy in all areas you can think of, housing, education, employment, government.

Of course this is all downplayed in government, but the facts dont lie. At my uni, i was involved in a study that found students who were socially coded as "Asian" were judged more harshly(given lower scores for same work) by tutors and were presumed to have plagiarised their work at higher rates than their "white" coded counterparts. The interesting thing was, all the reports and work was the same, only the names on them were different.(coded either ""asian"" or ""white"") And this was THIS year at my university!!

Research has also found that participants in the job market face lower rates of success if their resumes are coded Asian or Arab, regardless of education background or experience. Ive experienced this myself, and its even been reported in the papers here
http://www.theage.com.au/national/australian-bosses-are-racist-when-its-time-to-hire-20090617-chvu.html

Then theres all the race hate crimes that been occuring against Chinese and Indians this year which created international incidents
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/arrests-amid-indian-protest-over-melbourne-race-violence/story-e6frfjzf-1225719017592

just google ""melbourne race hate attacks"""for more info...

So basically we get attacked on the street, ffed over in uni, discriminated when we go for jobs etc etc, you can kind of get the picture.....

If youre Asian and in Australia, or Asian Australian, then you can pretty much expect to be treated second class, unless you have money. Wealthy people are treated well anywhere in the world they go . But if youre working or middle class Asian around here, it will be ALOT more difficult for you than if you were white anglo in similiar circumstances. Not saying you still cant succeed, but the odds are more increased stack against you.

Whats that saying? "the strongest steel is forged in the hottest fire""? so i guess all this situation does is force Asians to be more alpha to succeed, lol
J said…
According to the study, Sydney could be considered the most racist. I think comedian Greg Proops put it best with regards to Australia: it's one big continent of rednecks.

I'm always looking for that place, you know, where there's no rednecks, that place where people get along, and I never find it. I went to Australia, right, and I thought Australia was gonna be a groovy, surfnoid, smoke-a-joint wombat, you know? 'G'day mate!' 'No worries!' And it's like Arkansas with a beach. It's a whole country with a 'No Fat Chicks' sticker on it.

Plus I find it pretty damm hypocritical when Australians have these save the whales campaigns and crap on the Japanese to fuel their anti-Asian sentiments when they go around killing kangaroos and dingoes, which are endangered.
MojoRider said…
anna,

nah, didn't broach the subject of equality. We know that isn't a reality, especially where you are. but all the more reason why showing a sexual Asian male getting it on with Cate Blanchett's character is surprising, given how Aussies can be boorish and racist. Again, as stated previously, not that banging a white chick is the be all and end all, and i didn't see the entire movie, but what was unusual is that it portrayed an Asian male as a sexual being rather than asexual or worse. The sexuality wasn't seen as sinister, as if Dustin Nguyen's character was trying to force himself upon her.

Moreover, I try not to paint with a broad brush, but my encounters haven't been that good with Aussie males. One was an exchange student, cocky about everything, always challenging people. It was as if all this tough guy posturing was really just overcompensation for his latent homosexuality.

Then there was a snotty bartender in Hong Kong of all places. Like they still thought they were colonialists and I was just a local Hong Kong Chinese they could treat like shit. I was close to slamming that guy's face onto the bar, but my colleague in our office there, who was also Chinese American, calmed me down.

Let's just say that I'm wary of Australians until they prove otherwise.
Larry said…
Believe it not, Australia in some ways is worse than the USA for Asian people. Or at least the country is more naked about its anti-Asian sentiment.

The White Australia policy is one example.

And the 2005 Cronulla White race riots against Arabs and the more recent racist attacks on Indians and other Asians are another example.

One of the reasons for this racism is the history of Australia.

Like the USA, it's a White settler colony based upon the extermination of the indigineous people and the theft of their lands.

I can't remember who said it, but Australians are the "rednecks of Asia."
J said…
Well I guess anti-Asian sentiment is only going to get worse:

Dwindling resources threat to Asian peace

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