<
https://theconversation.com/china-is-criminalising-clothing-hurtful-to-the-spirit-and-sentiments-of-the-nation-could-this-mean-a-kimono-ban-213153>
"In August 2022 a young woman wearing a yukata – a simple, summer-weight kimono
– was having her photo taken on a street in picturesque Suzhou, China, when she
was accosted by a police officer. Following an angry exchange, partly captured
on her phone, she was arrested for disturbing the public peace.
The Suzhou Kimono Incident, as it came to be known, sparked an internet debate
over the propriety of wearing kimonos and the legality of the policeman’s
actions.
This was not the first time wearing a kimono in China had caused a furore, and
it would not be the last. Another broke out in March this year, after a visitor
to Nanjing, site of an infamous massacre by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1937,
reported seeing a woman in a white kimono posing amidst the cherry blossoms in
a Buddhist temple. He complained to the attendants but they said it was merely
a matter of ethics: after all, people were free to wear what they like.
That may soon change. A new draft law on public security published online at
the beginning of this month includes a clause criminalising the wearing of
clothes that might be “hurtful to the spirit and sentiments of the nation”. If
the law is passed, offenders will face penalties of up to 5,000 yuan (A$1,000)
and up to 15 days jail.
Draft laws, routinely posted for comment, rarely attract many responses. The
response to this one has been huge, with around 100,000 submissions to date.
Legal scholars in China have weighed in, pointing out the fuzziness of this
clause and its openness to abuse by local law enforcers.
And as one Beijing lawyer intimated, the legislation seems directly aimed at
the kimono."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
