BEIJING — In a room with soft lighting, decorated with fuzzy blankets and turquoise balloons, a group of 30 or so strangers gathered on a recent afternoon in Beijing to discuss a subject that is largely taboo in China: how to satisfy a woman sexually.

Such a workshop would hardly be out of place in New York or San Francisco.

But in China, public discussion of sex is mostly nonexistent. Sex education is typically glossed over in Chinese classrooms and usually limited to one or two “physical hygiene in puberty” lessons in biology class. Parents often avoid discussing the subject with their children altogether.

Many young Chinese say the only opportunities to learn about sex come from talking with their friends or watching pornography, so the workshop’s participants found themselves in an unusual environment.

At the entrance stood a billboard that was bubble gum pink and emblazoned with a message in Chinese characters: “Here, you will complete your sexual transformation!”