At Foreign Policy this week, Nels Frye examined civilian official’s curious uniformity of dress at the 18th Party Congress, and the various political pressures that encourage it.
China’s top leaders have been choosing Western business suits over the native-grown Mao suit, or Sun Yat-sen suit as it is known in China (after the founding father of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen), ever since Hu Yaobang, top man in the Communist Party from 1981 until 1987, wore them. China’s most reformist leader, Hu tried to bring accountability and transparency to the government, requiring Han Chinese in Tibet to learn Tibetan and even supporting the use of forks instead of chopsticks. So it’s no surprise that he was the first major Chinese leader to choose a suit and tie. His liberalism brought his ouster, but the preference for Western dress stuck. As the 1980s and 1990s wore on, fewer and fewer photos depicted leaders wearing the Mao suit. Hu Jintao only deployed it for military parades, and it’s unlikely that incoming President Xi Jinping will favor the look, which he might associate with the suffering he and his peers experienced during the Cultural Revolution.
[…] There really may be no good option for officials when it comes to style. Given their fragile relationship with the governed and the high-stakes race with colleagues to achieve higher rank — a race in which success comes from avoiding controversy and building consensus — the current cloaks of invisibility may be their best choice. Hermès ties or Armani suits would probably invite accusations of graft, while Mao suits seem a dangerous throwback. In the end, it’s just better to be boring.
Reactions to some of the outfits at the Two Sessions meetings in March illustrate the point. CPPCC delegate Li Xiaolin, for example, wore a $2,000 salmon pink Emilio Pucci suit, photos of which were shared online paired with a picture of ragged, barefoot rural children. Ministry of Tofu collected over a dozen images of delegates’ luxury clothing and accessories, together with netizens’ scathing comments about how someone wearing a thousand-dollar belt could represent the masses.
While most at the 18th Party Congress dressed to blend in, a few stood out. The standard dress code did not apply to delegates belonging to China’s ethnic minorities, whose traditional dress and headgear made an ostentatious point of the congress’ diversity even as, according to Human Rights Watch’s Nicholas Bequelin, minority representation on the Party’s Central Committee dropped to the lowest level ever.
With much of the congress and its implications thickly wrapped in secrecy, observers drove the reading of sartorial tea leaves to new heights at the unveiling of the new Party leadership on Thursday.
Notice how the tie colors get more muted at the ends of the row?Xi gets the brightest red one.
— Andrew Jacobs (@AndrewJacobsNYT) November 15, 2012
@mcgregorrichard @gadyepstein Tis. And Zhang Gaoli’s bold tie pattern signals his reformist desires, checkered with the red of the Party.
— Isaac Stone Fish (@isaacstonefish) November 15, 2012
“Xi begins new era for China.” 1st Chinese leader in 23 years without ridiculous glasses
— Peter Schloss (@peterschloss) November 16, 2012
(In his Foreign Policy article, Frye notes the growing popularity of contact lenses and laser eye surgery.)
Colour-coded conformism does not stop at clothing and accessories:
Fleet of black Audis spotted from window in Great Hall of the People twitter.com/TomLasseter/st…
— Tom Lasseter (@TomLasseter) November 14, 2012
unbelievable, Zhu Rongji in this pic here w/ undyed hair (gray), that’s extraordinary in Chinese officialdom bit.ly/TvFyQH #18PC
— Michael Zhao (@MkZhao) November 8, 2012
@granitestudio Probably right.
— Michael Zhao (@MkZhao) November 8, 2012
Finally:
A source says our fashion piece neglected to mention that at least two of the men in the PBSC use brow-liner. FP regrets the omission.
— Isaac Stone Fish (@isaacstonefish) November 14, 2012
Behold yr new leaders wth pride!Their ties red&hair nicely dyed/The imperious looks/on a lineup of crooks/A perpwalk where none will b tried
— Leo Lewis (@Urbandirt) November 15, 2012
