China wants to ban clothes that ‘hurt the feelings’ of the population

This is a text whose imprecision leaves plenty of room for interpretation. In China, a recent bill would ban clothing and speech deemed “harmful to the spirit of the Chinese people” or “offending the feelings” of the nation. They face a fine or even imprisonment. However, the text does not precisely define the types of clothing that would be prohibited by this legislation.

In China, people wearing clothing or banners conveying messages deemed politically controversial are already regularly punished for causing “dispute and disorder.” The project aims to give authorities more power to crack down on any clothing deemed to be contrary to morality.

In early September, a video was posted on Chinese social media showing a man in the southern city of Shenzhen being questioned by police after filming himself wearing a skirt. Many internet users praised the police intervention, fearing that such behavior would “embarrass people.” “This is offensive to general morality,” wrote a user on the Chinese social network Weibo.

Clothing-related incidents

Several lawyers in the country have publicly opposed the bill, which will have a public consultation period until September 30. This would lead to “too vague standards of punishment, which would easily lead to arbitrary expansion of the scope of administrative sanctions,” Lao Dongyan of Tsinghua University wrote on Weibo.

But like most people interviewed in Beijing, Ms. He, a young woman of 23, attributes the reform more to incidents involving the wearing of Japanese clothing in historical places or on memorial days. In 2021, the state-run tabloid Global Times said a woman faced “harsh criticism” after publicly wearing a kimono on December 13, the national day of remembrance for victims of war crimes committed by Japan in 1937.

Last year, a woman said she was arrested by police wearing a kimono in the eastern city of Suzhou. “Clothing is everyone’s choice and freedom, but there are special (circumstances),” Ms. He said, believing that certain behaviors that are “offensive in front of a statue or on a certain day” are “100% intentional and should be punished.”

“Historical Reasons”

“There are historical reasons, and I think the emotions of the local people should be taken into account,” said Mr. Gu, a 35-year-old man. On the other hand, “in most cases,” a thirty-year-old man “does not consider it necessary to initiate a case.” Like “for example, if a person goes (in a kimono) just to a shopping street.”

Moreover, Jeremy Daum, a researcher at the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale University, considers it “almost certain that the wording (of the draft) will be significantly changed” to more accurately address “the heroes, the martyrs, the history of the party, following the many comments that the text has generated .