Over the past ten days I have had a visit from my little sister. Like me when I first arrived, it was her first visit to China and so I did my best to bring her up to speed and let her experience as much as possible of what I go through by being here. It has been a whirlwind trip for her, filled with tourism and indulgence and hopefully she’s had a good time and got something from being here (other than lots of new handbags, tailor made clothes and massage, of course).
Sadly yesterday morning it was time for L to leave and so at 4am we were up and out to find a taxi to whisk her off to the airport. After just ten days of observing me in another country, she turned to me and pointed out that I had perhaps become a little Chinese, or taken on a few foreign (to us anyway) habits at least. Sure I eat Chinese food and try and speak Chinese if and when I can etc… but what made her squeal yesterday morning was my attire.
So what exactly, you may ask, was I wearing?! Quite simply: my pyjamas.
Yup, be it a status symbol (to show that you don’t have to rush to get dressed in the mornings) or be it just a crazy fashion statement, the Chinese are all about their pyjamas. It's a daily occurence that I see someone outside of the confines of their bedrooms, and even homes wearing pyjamas. And I'm not talking about the beautiful emboridered silk pyjamas you may expect from China, rather fleecy, flannel or padded numbers with cartoon prints in various shades of sickly colours.
At the time of the Olympics, Beijing’s Spiritual Civilisation Committee issued numerous edicts with the aim of governing citizens’ behaviour and trying to ensure it was more in-line with what foreign visitors would expect and not find ill-mannered. This ranged from instructions on how to queue to things such as how to apply make-up and comb your hair and to detailed advice on clothing; including the pyjama issue.
The Powers that be here in Shanghai have followed suit and tried to discourage the ‘visual pollution’ that is people wearing their PJs on the street. Boohoo.
Personally I think it adds a bit of charm, or certainly makes me giggle anyway. I live very centrally here in Shanghai, a neighbour to some five-star hotels and luxurious shopping centres galore. It’s a very Chinese area with fruit sellers and crumbling buildings, yet a stone’s cast from some seriously swishy, swanky sky scrapers and even swankier shops. That in itself is one big juxtaposition, but take the little old lady in her Mickey Mouse padded pyjamas walking in front of Louis Vuitton, Cartier and Hermes and it’s enough to make my head spin.
Yet there I was myself, a mere 24hours ago, in my pyjamas on Shanghai’s Nanjing Road. Refreshing that anything goes, liberating to not have to get dressed and pyjamas are clothes in themselves, I guess. My Chinese lesson of the day is: 睡衣 shuì yī - which means pyjamas.
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