From one extreme to the other

Communists throughout Asia were especially harsh in forcing conformity within their populations and ostracised (or worse) those who refused to let go of the elements of their "bourgiouse" lifestyles. I remember the details of one account offered by a girl in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge came to town. All citizens were issued the same baggy black outfits and everything related to capitalism was burned in communal bonfires. The memory of her own colourful party dress in flames on the heap was seared in her mind. Life only got worse as the country spiralled into famine and terror.

Conformity can ingratiate itself from a variety of quarters, and it would seem as though the shackles of communism have only been replaced by the shackles of consumerism (although thankfully the latter has no gulags for the slackers). 

Sitting in a beauty salon in Shanghai, watching girls pick out polish in various shades of pink – "Ballet Shoes", "Pink Lemonade", "Bikini Bottoms", "Midday Rendezvous" – I'm thinking anthropologists might want to look into nail colour as a barometer of socio-economic change.

Here in China, pink is the thing. My five-year-old niece has nothing on these women: their pink T-shirts are emblazoned with nonsensical but jolly assertions such as "Happy Me!" and "Kiss Kiss Girl"; they sport tiny pink trainers; Hello Kitty bags dangle from their arms; and their mobile phones are barnacled in pink sequins.

Well, we all know the power of trends, and pink will have its way with the unsuspecting everywhere. 

Western women have little room to deride these women when they've had their own moments of slavery to silly fashions. I just get frustrated at the requisite oscillation in such moments, but perhaps that's human nature. Who's to criticise people who've worked so hard and gone without when they have a chance to have a little fun? (Remember when John Paul II begged the newly freed East Europeans not to run pell-mell into the materialistic boondoggle of the West. The dust is still in the air from that stampede, despite his words.)

Barbie, of course, makes a splash being the girl-magnet that she is:

Barbie – that old feminist foe – is such a draw that she's just opened her very own café not far from People's Square. When I pop in for a Fashionista Salad (you don't get her 36-24-36 measurements by eating Barbie Burgers) I watch a gaggle of schoolgirls, aged between six and 10, taking part in Barbie's "I Can Be a Chef" programme. There's no negative cultural subtext: mothers and daughters are simply enjoying one of the many novelties their burgeoning city has to offer.

We can take comfort in the constancy of the Church on such things, as she critiques both sides for undermining the beauty of our personhood -- which is squashed by totalitarian regimes but also degraded by the indignities of consumerism.

The funniest and most harmless part is this last tidbit:

Who says the Chinese don't know how to relax? On Sundays, Shanghai's inhabitants celebrate their day off by wandering about in their pyjamas. In parks and shops, middle-aged men in Power Ranger PJs breeze about, smoking and reading the papers. Outside my hotel, a mother and daughter in matching (pink) sets chatter unselfconsciously as they wait to cross the road. Originally a class-motivated tradition (to demonstrate that you had enough money to buy clothes to sleep in), the custom is now discouraged by community leaders who see it as "visual pollution."

Ask people why they persist in doing it and the response is simple: "Because it's comfortable," they shrug. "And because we can."

Comments

[Elizabeth]

I got a real kick out of seeing that video! And yes, the pendulum really seems to swing hard sometimes.

[Sunnyday]

I'll watch the video right after commenting -- I wanted to thank you right away for tackling this topic and for putting incidents, trends and seemingly insignificant remarks or developments in society in the proper perspective.