In China's most modern and trendy city, Shanghai, the innocent but intimate pajama is at the center of a simmering public controversy that won't be put to bed.
The dispute revolves around wearing pajamas in public. On any given day on the commercial hub's crowded streets, locals in their nighties can be seen jostling for space with the latest mini-skirt fashion or the primly-pressed work suit and tie.
Daytime pajama wearers can be spotted anywhere in this city of 17 million, donning bedroom attire as naturally as a T-shirt on a hot summer day.
PHOTO: AFP
They cruise by on bicycles. They sip tea in quiet teahouses in the park. They saunter -- toothbrush and towel in hand -- through leafy lanes graced with the grand French concession homes of a bygone era to the public bathhouse.
In a recent survey on Shanghai's most fashionably unfashionable attire, 16 percent of respondents said they or family members often wear pajamas in public, and 25 percent sometimes did.
It was also considered one of the most irritating features of Shanghai city life along with domestic pets defecating in public, according to the study conducted by Shanghai Academy of Social Science sociologist Yang Xiong.
It is difficult to pinpoint just when pajamas became embroiled in one of Shanghai's fiercest etiquette wars in recent memory.
Many people deride the habit, which in China is peculiar to Shanghai, as uncivilized; smacking of an unforgivable lack of taste and poor pedigree in this class conscious city.
"People who wear the pajamas are degrading themselves because it shows their shallow taste and weak personal qualities," said Hu Shoujun, a sociologist at Shanghai's Fudan University.
"It's disrespectful to the others and, last but not least, it's not clean," Hu said.
But for resident Sun Mei, retired, wearing jammies is a perfectly acceptable comfort.
"Nobody has ever said to me it's inappropriate, and I don't feel it is either," Sun said as she pulled up to a local supermarket on her moped wearing a two-piece version decorated with cartoon figures.
Like many other residents she argued that she just wears them "around the neighborhood" -- a practical choice given most old homes in Shanghai have inadequate plumbing and locals often share public bathrooms.
There are other complexities surrounding the phenomenon.
One is the philosophical uncertainty in China's fashion circles over whether the pajama deserves its own place in the public wardrobe.
"If we were to take the pajamas as the pursuit of comfort, freedom and relaxation, it could be a trend," said Chen Hong, an editor with Elle magazine's Web site.
"But it's hard to say how one can wear pajamas in a fashionable way," Chen said.
Others point to the implied socio-economic message that wearing pajamas in public announces to others a certain life of leisure.
Another reason, according to Mou Lin, deputy fashion director with Elle magazine, is that pajamas are similar to the traditional Chinese suit of tunic and matching baggy trousers worn in ancient times.
But likely the main reason is the ongoing clash between people and the changing physical nature of Shanghainese society, said Yang, who conducted the survey.
A decade ago it was natural to wear pajamas in Shanghai's small lanes, where overcrowding meant forced communal living, but that has changed as more people have moved into the privacy of high-rise homes, he said.
"As Shanghai has become a metropolis the difference between private and public space has become more pronounced, and that is how the pajamas have become a problem," Yang said.
Taiwan would remain in the same international network for carrying out cross-border payments and would not be marginalized on the world stage, despite jostling among international powers, central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) said yesterday. Yang made the remarks during a speech at an annual event organized by Financial Information Service Co (財金資訊), which oversees Taiwan’s banking, payment and settlement systems. “The US dollar will remain the world’s major cross-border payment tool, given its high liquidity, legality and safe-haven status,” Yang said. Russia is pushing for a new cross-border payment system and highlighted the issue during a BRICS summit in October. The existing system
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to grow its revenue by about 25 percent to a new record high next year, driven by robust demand for advanced technologies used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications and crypto mining, International Data Corp (IDC) said yesterday. That would see TSMC secure a 67 percent share of the world’s foundry market next year, from 64 percent this year, IDC senior semiconductor research manager Galen Zeng (曾冠瑋) predicted. In the broader foundry definition, TSMC would see its market share rise to 36 percent next year from 33 percent this year, he said. To address concerns
Intel Corp chief financial officer Dave Zinsner said that a formal separation of the company’s factory and product development divisions is an open question that would be decided by the chipmaker’s next leader. Zinsner, who is serving as interim co-CEO following this month’s ouster of Pat Gelsinger, made the remarks on Thursday at the Barclays technology conference in San Francisco alongside co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus. Intel’s struggles to keep pace with rivals — along with its deteriorating financial condition — have spurred speculation that the next CEO would make dramatic changes. That has included talk of a split of the company’s manufacturing
PROTECTIONISM: The tariffs would go into effect on Jan. 1 and are meant to protect the US’ clean energy sector from unfair Chinese practices, the US trade chief said US President Joe Biden’s administration plans to raise tariffs on solar wafers, polysilicon and some tungsten products from China to protect US clean energy businesses. The notice from the Office of US Trade Representative (USTR) said tariffs on Chinese-made solar wafers and polysilicon would rise to 50 percent from 25 percent and duties on certain tungsten products would increase from zero to 25 percent, effective on Jan. 1, following a review of Chinese trade practices under Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974. The decision followed a public comment period after the USTR said in September that it was considering
RSS