The fashion police are out in Shanghai.
“In preparation for the 2010 World Expo, the municipal government has launched a campaign to eradicate running red lights and wearing pajamas in public.
For those of you who have not been wowed by the most cosmopolitan of Chinese cities, Shanghai is known for, among other things, its middle-aged women who saunter onto the street in their sleepwear. Some even venture as far as the subway or the shopping mall.”
Round here, that sort of thing is endemic, and the local press have already spotted the trend (I doubt it’s anything to do with it, but Liverpool has been twinned with Shanghai since 1999).
The Chinese campaign slogan demands that every resident “be a civilised person for the Expo”, suggesting that going down the shops in your PJs is not considered behaviour worthy of upright citizens. But both articles argue that Shanghai’s pyjama craze is not the product of slobbishness, but in fact a marker of social status.
The author of the China Daily piece has his own idea on how to achieve the desired result:
“Let the government give pajamas to rural residents in poverty-stricken areas. Television images will instantly put off Shanghainese and they will give up their favorite fashion choice without any prodding.”
Merseyside is, of course, already a poverty-stricken area, so that won’t work here. Maybe we could do it in reverse – if well-heeled Londoners were spotted out and about in their jammies, would the locals start dressing up to the nines to take the kids to school and pop into Branded Bargains?
(via Blood & Treasure)
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