There goes that famous line --- “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist.” In China, as dress bans go, perhaps the first they came for were the Uyghurs. In 2014, during a sporting event in northwestern China, it was announced that anyone wearing “Islamic style clothing” would be banned from riding public buses. Not long before, people living in the Muslim-dominated Xinjiang region of China were dissuaded from wearing Islamic veils.
Open secret
Then they came for the trade unionists, wrote the German-navy-man-turned-pastor Martin Niemöller. In China, they went for Kate Perry. The American singer was supposed to perform at a Victoria’s Secret fashion show but her visa was cancelled --- indefinitely. Reason: apparently, it is normal for celebrities invited to China to have their social media accounts scrutinised and Chinese officials discovered that Perry had worn a sunflower dress at a concert in Taipei some years ago. Sunflower is supposed to be the emblem of anti-China protestors in Taiwan. Oh, and at the same concert, Perry had worn a Republic of China flag as a cape.
Styled statement
Next, they had a go at the LGBTQ community. Fans at a pop concert in Beijing were not allowed to wear clothes with the visual of a rainbow on them. The logic of it works like this. The ruling Chinese Communist Party is deeply suspicious of the LGBTQ community, considers it “hostile”, something unleashed by foreign forces. The rainbow is associated with the LGBTQ community. The pop singer, Chang Hui-mei or A-Mei is an active supporter of LGBTQ rights. So what happened was this --- concert-goers were asked to wear their shirts inside out or were given black T-shirts by security guards. In between, local governments in the country banned people from walking around shirtless in summer, notwithstanding that a lot of men working in the fields find it comfortable. The government also banned women from “modelling lingerie on livestreams” and companies had no option but to have male models wear push-up bras, tight-fitting corsets and lace-trimmed nightgowns. And now there is a draft law targeting all citizens. Should your attire “undermine” the spirit of the country, you could be fined up to $680 or be flung into jail. “Then they came for the Jews... Then they came for me...," wrote Niemöller. He had once been a champion of Adolf Hitler and when his views altered, he found himself in a concentration camp for many years.
