Sora Aoi announced she was married on social media last week, sparking a frenzy on the Chinese internet.
When Japanese actress and former porn star Sora Aoi announced her marriage online, it set off a frenzy on Chinese social media.
That’s because she has played a surprisingly significant role in the lives of a generation of young Chinese internet users.
On New Year’s day, Ms Aoi showed off her ring on social media and announced the happy news to her fans around the world. Within 48 hours, the post got more than 170,000 comments and 830,000 likes on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter.
„We grew up with your movies and will support you as always,“ said one fan.
Another Weibo user said: „You will always be my goddess… I wish you happiness.“
Ms Aoi started her career in pornography in the early 2000s. It is estimated that she had starred in more than 90 adult films, with new work being published every month between 2003 and 2005.
Pornography is illegal in China, but that didn’t stop Chinese men going crazy for her.
„To many Chinese men who couldn’t get proper sexual education in their adolescence, Sora Aoi became our teacher,“ 27-year-old „Liu Qiang“ (not his real name) told the BBC.
Her popularity in China soared at a time when the Chinese internet was developing at breakneck pace. New web portals, online communities and streaming sites emerged one after another, facilitating the spread of all kinds of information – including illicit pornographic materials.
Mr Liu used to watch and share porn featuring Ms Aoi using MP4 players with friends when he was in high school. But as technology evolved, they turned to streaming websites to watch porn, as it was „much easier“.
„Sora Aoi seized the right time to rise in China“, says Prof Wai-ming Ng from Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Department of Japanese Studies,
„When she became popular in the country, China was opening up to the outside world in various ways, including in terms of sexuality.“
Porn is an key source for information about sex for young people in China, as sex education is limited at school; and most Chinese parents shy away from teaching children about sex.
