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Barring this past week's cold spell, temperatures are slowly beginning to rise here in Shanghai and with that, the amount of people we see walking outside in pajamas have invariably increased as well. But if one Shanghainese bureaucrat has her way, then Public Displays of Pajamas (or PDoP for short) might soon become a thing of the past.
The Montreal Gazette reported that Guo Xilin and other members of Shanghai's Rixin district's local neighborhood committee have started a "No Pajamas Outdoors" campaign... which makes us wonder what the big huff about PDoP is all about.
Today, most PDoPers do the deed out of comfort, but historically, it may have arose out of class consciousness. Wearing pajamas to bed meant that you had enough money to buy clothes for sleeping. Somewhere along the way, someone decided it was high time to show off sleeping clothes to the neighbors... and PDoP was born.
Now, the view on PDoP isn't so favorable: women practicing PDoP was listed as the "most uncivilized" behavior according to a 2007 poll for the Shanghai Women's Federation and the Rixin neighborhood committee has declared PDoF a "visual pollution".
Guo told the Montreal Gazette:
"We're telling people not to wear pyjamas in the street because it looks very uncivilized. People tend to wear them everywhere, to cinemas, hospitals and supermarkets. I tell them, no matter how beautiful your pyjamas are, you should only wear them at home."
Her pleas to keep the streets pajama-less have not always gone over well:
Guo tells how she ran into resistance trying to shame one man out of his pyjamas. "He told me, 'My pyjamas were bought abroad and they are much better and more expensive than your clothes'."Guo, aged 60-plus, was not to be deterred. "I talked to him several more times and persuaded him to wear his pyjamas only at home. I told him we are preparing the Shanghai Expo (in 2010) and many foreigners will come here.
"It's inappropriate to let them see you in your pyjamas."
So despite the beauty and expensiveness of pajamas, it seems that the trends are dictating that PDoPs should be erased from the streets of Shanghai. But oh, what a sad day that would be! We are praying to the sleepwear gods that a counter-campaign of throngs of middle-aged pajama-clad local men will peacefully march the streets of the Rixin neighborhood in protest.
Photo from dbmboise
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Pajamas are far less offensive than the hordes of hooker-booted women teetering around on their deadly heels. Pajamas are comfortable. They show much less to the neighbors than most acceptable fashion, or the sort of images displayed prominently on billboards and subway TV fashion shows.
Can't help but think that everyone would be much happier if they just stopped bloody worrying about what the foreigners will think.
It forgot to mention that they are wearing both their PJs AND their slippers!?! Are they so lazy that they can't bother to put on some comfortable shoes instead of ruining their slippers?
I could care less about the look, I just can't fathom why someone would willingly choose to sleep in the same clothes that are covered in the smell and dirt from walking outside? Do you think they are aware of how unhealthy it is to be sleeping in the same clothes that they are walking around in?? In terms of improving people's health, the government should make some sort of effort to persuade them not to wear their PJs outside.
If they are looking for comfort, we are living in 2009, and there are plenty of clothing that are a lot more comfortable then the quilted, old-styled PJ's that we see worn on the street.
Aside from the occasional, random person, in my many years living outside Shanghai (Sichuan, Yunnan, among others), this phenomenon seems to be 'special' to Shanghai. I'll even go so far as to say that Shanghai people are likely the only people in the world that wear their PJs outside.
Clearly logic need not apply here!
Anyone who's worn those kind of pjyamas know that there is nothing more comfortable.
I put a pair of Teddy Bear ones on for a joke in September last year and only took them off on Saturday afternoon.
The fact that Shanghaiese may be the only people in the world to wear their pajamas around town is a reason NOT TO BAN THEM!
This is one of the very few areas where Shanghai has something unique in its character (otherwise this is just an incredibly bland big city with very little color).
How anyone can accept some neighborhood watch sticking their nose into their personal business? It doesn't hurt anybody, and in case you didn't know Mrs. Guo, you anal-retentive conservative bratwurst sausage, foreigners like to see the pajamas - we think they're great!
There's nothing I hate more than conformity, except enforced conformity. Keep your stupid, offensively intrusive opinions to yourself you old hag, people can wear whatever they want - IT'S THEIR RIGHT!
Oops! What I meant to say was "develop the group spirit! Ban expressions of individuality wherever they appear!"
FWIW, most of these folks have ACTUAL sleep PJ's and streetwear PJ's, so they do NOT as one ignorant poster said, sleep in the same clothes they go out in. But I suppose that would assume one would need to speak Chinese well enough to get the whole story from many of those who actually practice this habit.
Just because nobody has yet explained to some Shanghainese the uncleanliness of some of their "unique," "cute" personal hygiene habits, doesn't mean that the government doesn't have a right to educate their citizens for their own (and the taxpayer's) welfare.
I DO speak Chinese, have lived with Chinese families, have married a Chinese woman, and spent time out in the farmland. The Chinese that I have spoken to (albeit most not Shanghainese), think they're just old and 'crazy' and assume like I do that they sleep in the very close that they are parading out on the streets.
Comfortable? My bed is comfortable, but it doesn't mean I want to live my life in it. I can assure you that there is plenty of comfortable clothing that does not include sleepwear. STILL not comfortable enough? Go get some silk Changshan's 长衫 made!
For some reason, nobody is mentioning the dirt covered, worn out slippers (I'm not talking about the rubber sandals) that are so often worn with the PJ's.
Also, nobody seems to care about the uncleanliness aspect of sleeping in pollution-filled clothes. Try climbing into bed with street clothes and see how quickly your significant other kicks you out of bed!! And she's not kicking you out because she/he wants you to be more 'comfortable.'
Just because nobody has yet explained to some Shanghainese the uncleanliness of some of their "unique," "cute" personal hygiene habits, doesn't mean that the government doesn't have a right to educate their citizens for their own (and the taxpayer's) welfare.
I DO speak Chinese, have lived with Chinese families, have married a Chinese woman, and spent time out in the farmland. The Chinese that I have spoken to (albeit most not Shanghainese), think they're just old and 'crazy' and assume like I do that they sleep in the very close that they are parading out on the streets.
Comfortable? My bed is comfortable, but it doesn't mean I want to live my life in it. I can assure you that there is plenty of comfortable clothing that does not include sleepwear. STILL not comfortable enough? Go get some silk Changshan's 长衫 made!
For some reason, nobody is mentioning the dirt covered, worn out slippers (I'm not talking about the rubber sandals) that are so often worn with the PJ's.
Also, nobody seems to care about the uncleanliness aspect of sleeping in pollution-filled clothes. Try climbing into bed with street clothes and see how quickly your significant other kicks you out of bed!! And she's not kicking you out because she/he wants you to be more 'comfortable.'
So, because Bsta1382 and his xiangxia friends -- who I'm sure are all paragons of cleanliness -- mistakenly assume that Shanghainese people sleep in their street pajamas, the government should step outlaw pajamas in public. The logical extension of this law, of course, is to ban street clothes from the bedroom. Anyone who doesn't like it can go get some silk Changshan's made! Build a harmonious society! Eliminate feudal superstitions and pajamas!
Whenever change in behaviour is wanted that bogeyman about what foreigners think is always led out to scare the kids.
Ah, Brad, your 城市居民 ideas are truly groundbreaking!!
Unfortunately, the Shanghai government is not (yet) proposing a law, just drawing light to the ridiculousness and uncleanliness of the habit. Your use of logical fallacy in banning street clothes from the bedroom couldn't work, but then again ... If the US could ban certain sexual actions in the bedroom, why can't China ban what is worn in the bedroom?
Fortunately we are now living in a 1984 country that can stipulate one's individual actions, and PJ's are clearly not part of 和谐社会!!
In regards to the bogeyman ... Hey!! It's nice to know that our (foreigner) opinions still matter. lol ... The movement is gaining ground because the Chinese themselves see the ridiculousness of it, and are embarrassed, regardless of foreigners POV. Just because the foreigners like it, does not mean that this should override the general Chinese population that do not.
I presume most foreigners see the PJ's as 'quaint' and amusing. Consciously or not, I also presume they are looking down on the Chinese person, adding to the negative/lowly perception of the Chinese people. In a country/city where image has become everything, PJ's do not exactly present a positive image. Fashionable, expensive, and comfortable they may feel they are, belong in my factories or office they do not. Of course, I'm just a country bumpkin...
Decades-old habits are hard to break, (spitting, pointing at people, not looking before they cross the road, etc). Regardless of the anti-PJ movement, it will be another 10-20 years before the street-PJ's and other 'amusing' habits literally die out. Till then, foreigners and non-Shanghainese alike will have something to write home about!
Ah, Brad, your 城市居民 ideas are truly groundbreaking!!
Unfortunately, the Shanghai government is not (yet) proposing a law, just drawing light to the ridiculousness and uncleanliness of the habit. Your use of logical fallacy in banning street clothes from the bedroom couldn't work, but then again ... If the US could ban certain sexual actions in the bedroom, why can't China ban what is worn in the bedroom?
Fortunately we are now living in a 1984 country that can stipulate one's individual actions, and PJ's are clearly not part of 和谐社会!!
In regards to the bogeyman ... Hey!! It's nice to know that our (foreigner) opinions still matter. lol ... The movement is gaining ground because the Chinese themselves see the ridiculousness of it, and are embarrassed, regardless of foreigners POV. Just because the foreigners like it, does not mean that this should override the general Chinese population that do not.
I presume most foreigners see the PJ's as 'quaint' and amusing. Consciously or not, I also presume they are looking down on the Chinese person, adding to the negative/lowly perception of the Chinese people. In a country/city where image has become everything, PJ's do not exactly present a positive image. Fashionable, expensive, and comfortable they may feel they are, belong in my factories or office they do not. Of course, I'm just a country bumpkin...
Decades-old habits are hard to break, (spitting, pointing at people, not looking before they cross the road, etc). Regardless of the anti-PJ movement, it will be another 10-20 years before the street-PJ's and other 'amusing' habits literally die out. Till then, foreigners and non-Shanghainese alike will have something to write home about!
To 樓上 Who is LOL:
Read with understanding:
"I told him we are preparing the Shanghai Expo (in 2010) and many foreigners will come here.
"It's inappropriate to let them see you in your pyjamas."
Note similar appeals before the Beijing Olympics; appealing to "what foreigners will think", or managing foreigner's impressions, is a common ploy in argument not only in mainland China but Taiwan and even Singapore but, say... You haven't been listening, have you?
I like how Bsta1382 felt the need to clarify his authority on the subject by stating he is married and has visited a farm. This surely puts him as the obvious choice for Fashion Police.