should westerners wear chinese clothes?
YES Why on earth not? Chinese people wear Western clothes and I can't see any problem with returning the compliment. Padded jackets? Great idea - I've spent part of each winter here enclosed in a turquoise one with birds flitting hither and yon on the back. A Chinese friend expressed the opinion that this was the sort of garb no self-respecting young local would be seen dead in, such jackets being strictly the preserve of ancient bods doing tai-chi at 6.30 am. I don't care. It's warm, it's cheerful and I, too, will live to be an athletic 100 if I continue to wear one when the temperature dips below 15 degrees Celsius.
Those black pumps as worn by the men who lasso the Star Ferry? Wonderful, I travelled round southwest China in a pair which cost $24 in China Products. In the evenings, I had a cashmere shawl from the same emporium to keep me warm, plus lots of thermal underwear, courtesy of industrious little Chinese silk worms. God bless the Middle Kingdom for giving us silk and cashmere is what I say, and let's all have a piece of the action.
And isn't it lucky that we're not living in, say, India, which is a much more sartorially challenging place if you're a Western female. The tendency for backpackers to fling themselves into a sari is a truly horrible one which should be resisted at all costs. Unfortunately, this copycat affliction strikes the minute Western women land at Indira Gandhi International Airport (usually accompanied by nose-piercing, henna painting of hands and wobbly tikka marks on foreheads). Saris look divine on one class of female only: subcontinental.
The Chinese, however, are much kinder in that their garb can be donned by pasty heffalumps with no great loss of face, but some loss of stomach; there is a forgiving amplitude in Chinese clothes to which many Westerners can respond. David Tang has made a fortune out of this simple realisation. Tang suits and Mao jackets and those flowing Qing dynasty gowns look regal on anyone, even those tourists who'll be piling into Shanghai Tang to partake of their own economic handover this weekend. Cheongsams present more of a problem, and I have to say I've never had the courage to compress myself into one, but I've seen Western women transformed by their rigorous sensuality.
In any case, just as some Western fashions fail to hit the mark (tartan flares, anyone?), so not all Chinese clothes are an instant success. But I can't see why I should feel somehow shifty or silly for choosing to wear them when I want. I haven't noticed thousands around me cringing as they pull on their jeans every morning. If I'm wearing my gold Tang jacket at midnight tomorrow, it's not because I'm making a reunification statement or somehow, obscurely, insulting a nation. It's because I like it.
Fionnuala McHugh NO There is a quiet dignity to ethnic garb that spontaneously combusts the moment westerners attire themselves in it. Vietnamese women look stunning in ao dais. I can't imagine many American women who would. The red-and-white-checked keffiyah that is surgically attached to Yasser Arafat would look plain silly on a British civil servant. And so it is with the latest craze for gweilos in Hong Kong to don mandarin collars, cheongsams and padded jackets - often in those horrid lurid hues foisted upon us by David Tang and his ubiquitous emporium.
What separates those gifted with sartorial elegance from walking fashion disasters (and I count myself in the latter group, I hasten to add) is an innate sense of what will look suave, tasteful and appropriate on any given occasion.
For example, at last year's Hong Kong Press Club Ball, Master of Ceremonies and erstwhile Post columnist Stuart Wolfendale scorched sundry retinas by waltzing in wearing a day-glo lime mandarin-collared jacket (donated - surprise, surprise - by Shanghai Tang). Granted, Wolfendale is a journalistic heavyweight in every sense, and the unsettling effect was amplified by the fact that enough fabric had been used to make a six-man tent. Suffice to say, it was not suave, tasteful or particularly appropriate; he resembled some kind of swollen neon red guard.
It was heartening to see another large chap, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, making a stand against donning daft garb at the G7 (plus one) summit this week. Dr Kohl was adamant he would not wear cowboy boots and a stetson to attend an evening gala. Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien did, and looked like complete dorks.
Westerners here need to follow the example of Dr Kohl and eschew undignified excursions into unsuitable attire. The quilted jackets and black pyjamas that look just fine on bandy-legged crack-of-dawn tai-chi practitioners are likely to look less than dapper on your average Jardines Johnny.
I believe it is beholden on all expatriates to boycott the Shanghai Tang-sponsored Dress Chinese Day on July 3. If you're feeling charitable, you can still give some of your hard-earned to the Community Chest without having to parade around for a day feeling like the Last Emperor. I mean, three cheers for the Tangster for supporting such a worthy cause, but you can't tell me umpteen dozen people rushing out to grab the latest chinoiserie chic won't have him laughing all the way to the Bank of China Building too.
Now if he was a real sport, he would have suggested a Cross-dress Chinese Day. I can just see Tung Chee-hwa arriving for his third day as Chief Executive in a slinky red cheongsam.
As for my razor-horned opposite number, a turquoise padded jacket? Really. I think she's just enlisted in the ranks of walking fashion disasters.
Jason Gagliardi
