Tall buildings, big events, modernity: The characteristics of a sexy Chinese city. Condom sales, birth rates, transmitted disease and toys: The determinants of a sexy US city.

In unrelated surveys released this week, Shanghai was named China's sexiest metropolis while Austin, Texas was crowned with that honor for the US. The survey results provide a gimmicky glimpse into cultural psyches in the G-2 nations.

Beijing-based Horizon Research Consultancy said respondents to its recent China survey based their No. 1 ranking for Shanghai on the basis of some of its most visible attributes: wealth, modernity and tall structures like Oriental Pearl Television Tower, plus its iconic image. Runner up Chinese cities included Hong Kong, for its star power, and Chongqing, for its beautiful women.

The so-called "lad's mag" that did the US survey, Men's Health, tried to get, as it said, closer to "nookie rates." More data driven, its rankings considered Nielsen estimates of condom sales, state records on births and financial reports from sex toy makers. Seven of its top 15 US cities were in Texas, while cold weather cities generally ranked low in that survey. "One possibility is that in an area where’s it's hotter, people need to dress lighter and that puts pressure on them to look better and keep in better shape,” Matt Marion, the deputy editor of the magazine said.

One way to think about the results is, in top-down administered China, people take sexual cues by peering skyward at the big picture. In democratically run America, it's the individual who matters. Another possibility is that sex remains a more private matter in China than the US, at least in terms of how openly it is discussed and therefore measurable.

美國(guó)《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》9月18日文章：上海和奧斯汀，哪個(gè)更性感？

高樓林立，大型活動(dòng)，現(xiàn)代氣質(zhì)：這些是中國(guó)“性感”城市的特征。避孕套銷量，生育率，性傳播疾病和情趣玩具：這些則是美國(guó)“性感”城市的決定因素。

在本周公布的兩項(xiàng)互不關(guān)聯(lián)的調(diào)查中，上海被命名為中國(guó)最性感的城市，而德克薩斯州的奧斯汀則被冠以美國(guó)最性感城市。這兩項(xiàng)調(diào)查結(jié)果可以巧妙地讓人管窺到美中兩國(guó)的文化氣質(zhì)。

北京零點(diǎn)研究咨詢集團(tuán)說，該公司最近在中國(guó)進(jìn)行的調(diào)查中，受訪者把上海排在第一，所依據(jù)的是這個(gè)城市最明顯的特質(zhì)：財(cái)富、現(xiàn)代氣質(zhì)和東方明珠塔之類的高樓大廈，還有上海受人崇拜的形象。排名緊隨其后的中國(guó)城市包括盛產(chǎn)明星的香港和盛產(chǎn)美女的重慶。

在美國(guó)進(jìn)行調(diào)查的男性雜志《男性健康》自稱試圖盡可能接近性的本質(zhì)。這家雜志的排名更加偏重于數(shù)據(jù)，考慮了尼爾森公司的避孕套銷量估計(jì)數(shù)字、生育情況紀(jì)錄以及性玩具制造商的財(cái)務(wù)報(bào)告。排名最靠前的15個(gè)美國(guó)城市中有7個(gè)位于德克薩斯州，而氣候寒冷的城市在這項(xiàng)調(diào)查中的排名一般都偏低。這家雜志的副主編馬特-馬里安碩：“一種可能是在比較炎熱的地區(qū)，人們需要穿得單薄一些，這會(huì)迫使他們讓自己顯得漂亮一些，保持好一點(diǎn)的身材?！?/p>

對(duì)于這些結(jié)果的一種解讀是：在自上而下管理的中國(guó)，人們通過仰視恢宏的景象來獲得有關(guān)性的提示；在民主化管理的美國(guó)，重要的是個(gè)體。另一種可能得出的解讀是，比起美國(guó)，性在中國(guó)仍是一件比較私人的事情，至少在對(duì)性的公開討論及衡量方面。