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Witness History: China puts tampons on sale

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China’s First Sale of Tampons

09/07/2019 GMT

China puts tampons on sale

BBC World Service - Witness History, China puts tampons on sale

Women in China got access to tampons for the first time in 1985

Women in China were able to buy tampons for the first time in 1985. But these sanitary products were not widely accepted in the Chinese society.

Tampons first went on sale in China in 1985. But many Chinese women, especially in rural areas still didn't have access to basic sanitary products. Even now only a tiny percentage of Chinese women use tampons on a regular basis.
Yashan Zhao has been talking to the man behind the first advertising campaign for tampons in China, and to a woman from the countryside where sanitary products were not widely available until the late 1980s.

Photo: Chinese women looking at educational material about tampons in a Beijing store, in 1985 (Courtesy of Ren Xiaoqing)

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