No dressing down: Why miniskirts are vital to China’s future

Individual liberties have always been iffy in China. But current efforts to control private lives seem even more sinister. The most recent jaw dropper is a proposed legislative change that will mandate detention and fines for wearing clothing “detrimental to the spirit of the Chinese people”. Is this a superpower speaking or Taliban? One thing’s for sure. Like all other attempts to moral police what people wear, the two demographics worst affected will be women and the young.

Note that youth unemployment in China is so bad that the government has stopped publishing data on it. As for women, the “family values” pressure on them is rising as the country’s population is decreasing. Also note that the politburo is women-free for the first time in decades. As Chinese social media overflows with widespread anger against the proposal, the broader question is what more and more ideological straitjacketing will do to all the “human capital”, which alone can offset China’s population decline.

If Chinese hyper-nationalists who apparently feel awful when they spot a miniskirt or a man “who doesn’t dress like man” or kimonos succeed in suppressing varied individual expressions, it will ultimately affect the risk-taking enterprising spirit that was a key factor in the Chinese miracle. Let this be a warning for moral police everywhere: authorities threatened by citizens’ choices of dress and speech do no good to the country they profess to love.

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