Ruan Fangfu

Ruan Fangfu (; 1935 - 5 January 2025) also called Fang Fu Ruan is a 20th and 21st century Chinese physician, medical historian and human rights activist from Jiangxi, China. He is renowned for his extensive research into the relationship between Chinese culture and sexuality. His publications in the early to mid 1980’s helped reform Chinese public opinion on sexuality and directly influenced the creation of numerous private and state sexology and family planning organizations. In America, Ruan Fangfu worked as a respected researcher and professor at Texas Technical University and the New York State University at Buffalo. He is editor and author of A Chinese manual of Sex Knowledge (性知识手册, Xingzhishi Shouce, 1985). His most famous work is Sex in China: Studies in Sexology in Chinese Culture. He is also a member of the International Encyclopedia of Sexuality (IES).

Education Ruan Fangfu obtained his doctorate of medicine from the Beijing Medical University in 1959. In 1991 he earned his second doctorate at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. Interested in the analysis of sexuality from early on, Ruan Fangfu’s 1959 doctoral dissertation consisted of an expansive examination of sex throughout the history of China.

Early career Ruan Fangfu began his career in 1960 as an assistant professor at the Beijing Medical University’s physiology department. In 1984, he moved to the department of medical history. From 1984-1985, Ruan Fangfu also performed the duties of an adjunct associate professor at the Worker’s Medical College. During this same time, he served as an adjunct professor of sociology for the Department of Behavioral Sciences at the Health Administration College.

Mid career In 1988, Raun Fangfu moved to the United States of America, and began working as a visiting associate professor of sociology at Texas Technical University. At this same time, he also maintained an adjunct professor position at the New York State University at Buffalo School of Nursing. There, he taught classes both in medicine and history.

Later career In 1990, Fangfu began working as the vice-president of the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences in Oakland, California. There, he also held a professorial position in the Department of Oriental Sexology at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco, California.

Works Ruan Fangfu’s created Sex in China: Studies in Chinese Culture,

Controversy The publication of Ruan Fangfu’s Handbook of Sexual Knowledge, which was published in 1985, flew in the face of China’s implicit ban on all sex-related topics. His work significantly affected the discourse around sex in China, and catalyzed a series of similar research projects within the country. Fangfu’s publications also caused academic unrest because they broke from Eastern tradition in their reliance on Western medical practices and inclusion of imported Western knowledge.