China's one-child policy was instituted as an extreme measure to control the country's rapid population expansion. But with an ageing populace, the county's demographic distribution is beginning to reflect its Western counterparts. In response, the government has scrapped the policy.

In November 2013, China loosened the population control policy that had prohibited so many couples from having more than one child for more than three decades. But the baby boom that Chinese authorities and population planners were hoping for hasn’t come to pass yet.

In China, calling someone a diaosi – which directly translates as ’penis hair’ – isn’t an insult. On the contrary, millions of Chinese in dead-end jobs, with no car, house or girlfriend identify with the term, wearing it as a badge of honour. But could self-deprecation be a danger to society?

A sexual awakening is occurring in China. As young people experiment with sex, drugs and civil disobedience, this shift has shades of the West’s cultural upheaval in the ‘60s. But are conservative values still shackling the majority? And to what extent can China’s youth really cut loose?