A draft law sparks debate with locals calling it absurd and questioning how they would be policed.
A draft law banning speech and dressing "detrimental to the spirit of Chinese people" has sparked debate in China.
If the law comes into force, people found guilty could be fined or jailed but the proposal does not yet spell out what constitutes a violation.
Social media users and legal experts have called for more clarity to avoid excessive enforcement.
China recently released a swathe of proposed changes to its public security laws - the first reforms in decades.
The clothing law has drawn immediate reaction from the public - with many online criticising it as excessive and absurd.
The contentious clauses suggest that people who wear or force others to wear clothing and symbols that "undermine the spirit or hurt the feelings of the Chinese nation" could be detained for up to 15 days and fined up to 5,000 yuan ($680; £550).
I find this kind of interesting after Naomi Wu (also known as SexyCyborg) recently had a run-in with the CCP and has largely gone silent online.
For anyone not familiar with her/her situation, she's a tech/maker YouTuber. She has a pretty radical look with enormous fake boobs and skimpy outfits, but she does have some genuinely interesting content. She had been calling out some security vulnerabilities that recently got some attention so that's likely why the Chinese government, in her words, clipped her wings, but she had a bit of a target painted on her back regardless because of her appearance, being a lesbian, and because her girlfriend is a Uyghur.
The wild part to me is that overall I never got the impression from anything I saw from her that she was particularly anti-ccp, some of the annoyed grumbling I'd expect from literally anybody living under any government in the world, but that's about it. Overall she seemed to be a pretty proud Chinese citizen, and probably a good spokesperson for the Chinese tech sector, from watching her videos I know that I'm slightly less quick to dismiss any Chinese gadgets as chinesium garbage. I'd think she'd be more useful to keep around for PR purposes, but after her previous incidents didn't make significant waves with her western audience, it seems that they figured they're free to bully her however they want to now.
She actually did partially address that, obviously without going into too many details, saying that she could leave but her girlfriend couldn't, so they're pretty much just going to keep their heads down and play by the rules.
She's a pretty smart gal, but uses her looks to Garner views and get attention which I would imagine is very difficult for female tech enthusiasts in China, which is male dominated.
She also has non traditional sexual gender identities which doesn't endear her to the Chinese authorities. But the real kicker is when she identified a security and privacy issue with an android keyboard.
Yeah? How about closing those sweatshops that pollute Chinese rivers, drinking water, that destroys soil so that plants can never grow again, where Chinese works inhale colorant and chemicals... how about that shit, CCP?
For those wondering, "Hurting the feelings of the Chinese people" is an actual phrase (伤害中国人民的感情) it started all the way back in the late 50s.
this last part "感情 ganqing" translated as "feelings" or "emotional attachment", it's actually an important part of chinese culture, esp business culture (similar to this is "guanxi" which is someone's network). These are major parts of chinese culture and relationships with others. this phrase is more like "you're hurting our relationship"
It feels shady the way the media uses this overly literal translation of 'hurt the feelings' all the time in order to make the Chinese sound ridiculous. Could make any foreign language speaker sound ridiculous by cherry picking funny but common phrases and translating them literally.
Honestly, I feel the same about both: it's absurd. With France I get the "freedom from religion" spiel from some Frenchman, but it's veiled xenophobia to me. When you ban a kind of clothing but only for one group of people, that's basically the definition. Here, it's just fascism. At least the Chinese people are speaking out.
France doesn't ban religious anything, only in public schools, that's all. Outside education people are free to do what they want. What China is doing is wildly different, China just bans things in general for all sectors of life
My comments were about the same. As much as I hate religion you have every right to express it. French students should be able to wear religious symbols and garments in schools, the CCP should not be going after this shit, men have a right to sag their pants. I can go on but I think my point is clear, freedom includes the freedom to be offensive or it means nothing.
when women are obligated to cover up, people just accept those governments telling them what to do; have you seen any protests lately about governments in the middle east and asia telling women to cover up?
but the proposal does not yet spell out what constitutes a violation.
and this is not a coincidence. Authoritarian states love vaguely operationalized definitions like this because it's basically a blanko check to arrest anyone at any time. And it puts the populace into a fearful, fatalist mindset of "I could be arrested at any time for bogus charges, even if I did nothing wrong."
"Will wearing a suit and tie count? Marxism originated in the West. Would its presence in China also count as hurting national feelings," one user posted on Chinese Twitter-like platform Weibo.
She cited one case that drew headlines in China last year where a kimono-clad woman was detained in the city of Suzhou and accused of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" because she had worn the Japanese garment. The incident sparked outrage across Chinese social media.
"To wear a kimono is to hurt the feelings of the Chinese nation, to eat Japanese food is to jeopardise its spirit? When did the feelings and spirit of the time-tested Chinese nation become so fragile?" wrote one popular social commentator online, who writes under the pen name Wang Wusi.
In 2019, during further moves on censorship, China blurred out the earlobes of some of its young male pop stars in television and internet appearances to hide their piercings. Tattoos and men's ponytails have also previously been blurred from screens.
They are listing all the printed t-shirts I have. Funny side story, while teaching in Japan, I've taught grannies with printed shirts that said stuff like this and they didnt understand. They thought it was cute and had foreign words. I think they needed to study more before their lessons.
I'm unable to find the original Chinese, but couldn't "hurt national feelings" just as well be translated as "do emotional damage"? Like walking around London 1997 with a shirt that said "Princess Di deserved to die"? Now while that aint illegal in the UK (as far as I know) it's at least a little less ridiculous to talk about trauma from events that affect a nation rather than this dismissive right-wing language of "hurt national feelings".
(this is not a pro-CCP comment please give me the benefit of the doubt)
wearing a t-shirt saying an actual valued member of the royal family deserved to die likely would get you arrested in the UK, regardless of the legality of it
No it wouldn't, don't be ridiculous. Yes there was some heavy handed policing around the queen's funeral and the coronation which was pretty disgusting, but no-one is being arrested for just wearing an anti-royal tee shirt. Hell it was 50 years ago when the sex pistols were calling the monarchy a "Fascist regime" and they weren't arrested for that.
Does this implies we are about to see the comeback of the blue and brown clothing of the Mao era or can we expect the return of the imperial style to the rulling class?
A draft law banning speech and dressing "detrimental to the spirit of Chinese people" has sparked debate in China.
The proposed legal changes also forbid "insulting, slandering or otherwise infringing upon the names of local heroes and martyrs" as well as vandalism of their memorial statues.
Would its presence in China also count as hurting national feelings," one user posted on Chinese Twitter-like platform Weibo.
She cited one case that drew headlines in China last year where a kimono-clad woman was detained in the city of Suzhou and accused of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" because she had worn the Japanese garment.
In March this year, police detained a woman donning a replica of a Japanese military uniform at a night market.
And earlier last month, people who wore rainbow print clothing were denied entry to a concert by Taiwanese singer Chang Hui-mei in Beijing.
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This is awful and wrong and a violation of the human rights of the citizens of that country. Thankfully, we don't let the government decide what people are allowed to wear here in the good ol US of A...doesnt matter how many conservatives' feelings are hurt. Small government and all that...
Guess you didn't catch the sarcasm dripping off that entire statement? I wasn't even talking about our incarceration problem, I was referencing all the anti-trans and anti-drag legislation the conservative states have been passing. Literally, the "small government" idiots legislating what clothes people can wear in public...
hey so does that mean they're gonna stop making Japanese street fashion clothes over there? I use to buy directly from TaoBao and a few years ago lolita was still pretty popular in China.
It’s understandable, the way people dress is very important to creating a good environment. As a business owner I strictly enforce a dress code for my employees whether their job is forward facing or not. No clothes with political (BLM/pride) messages, no shorts, women must wear heels and makeup, etc. I asked my employees to also follow the dress code while working from home during the pandemic but I had a gut feeling that many of them were not doing so which is part of why I insisted they come back to the office as soon as COVID disappeared.