What with all this hoopla about Furong Jiejie, the world probably thinks that Chinese Internet users are a pack of attention-starved narcissists.

Apparently, that's true. The AP reports on the salacious trend of nude web-chats in China. XXXciting!

Chinese Researcher Warns of Nude Web Chats

Associated Press

August 29, 2005, 11:34 PM EDT

SHANGHAI, China -- A Chinese researcher has warned of a new threat to public health and morality -- naked Internet chatting. Up to 20,000 Chinese Internet users log on to chatrooms each night in which users in various states of undress talk to each other with the help of Web cams, the Shanghai Daily newspaper said Tuesday, citing China Youth Association researcher Liu Gang.

"At first, we thought if was merely a game for a few mentally abnormal people," the paper quoted Liu as saying. "But as our research continued, we found the problem was much larger than expected," Liu said.

Participants in the sites download chat software and attach video cameras to their computers, the paper reported. They then "talk with others while exposing themselves and performing provocative poses," it said.

China has more than 87 million Internet users, the second largest after the United States. Communist authorities have struggled to limit free discussion and other online content considered subversive while encouraging the Net's commercial applications.

Mentally abnormal, huh? Because no sane, normal person would ever be, you know, excited by sex. (Banned by law in America, I hear.)

Well with 87 million Internet users (and that would be about the 12th estimate I've seen), and only 20,000 “mentally abnormal” net nudists, that means that only about .0002% of Chinese Internet users fall into this perverted category. That's something shy of a full-on epidemic. By this reckoning, you could encounter one Chinese Internet user per minute in a chat room, and run into a naked one only once every 72 hours.

Well, I can't think of a better reason to duct-tape up your child's head, haul the computer into the courtyard, soak it in gasoline and toss a lit butt (no pun intended) on it. It's a full-on p*rno-storm out there.

I'd like to point out that it's not just the Chinese who like to swing in the breeze while they surf. I'm buck naked as I blog this. And, I'm rock-solid sane and sober, and I feel good.

Thanks to Hose-B for the article. I bet he's naked too.