May 25, 2016

"No need for ironing, neat, stain resistant, and with a common touch... This has made the jacket a favorite informal attire for Chinese officialdom."

"The jacket has been loved by generations of leaders, because it is versatile and easygoing... The jacket look is lively and exudes vigor."

Quotes from Chinese media about the "Xi jacket" — the navy-blue, zippered windbreaker worn by President Xi Jinping of China, from a NYT article titled "China’s Leader Wears Many Hats, but Only One Jacket."

And here's a quote from an Australian professor, Louise Edwards, who, we're told, "has studied the political symbolism of clothes in China":
“It is sufficiently distinct from the worker ant conformity of the Mao suit but still invokes the same spirit as the Mao suit: frugality, practicality, proximity to the people.... He wears the windbreaker when he wants to show he is down to work.”

The jacket’s message, she said, is, “Running the country is my job, I labor at it, I am a political worker.”
In the summer, Xi just wears "a long-sleeved white shirt and dark trousers." According to the NYT, in what I would have thought as too potentially racist-seeming to print: "When accompanying officials follow suit, as they often do, they call to mind a rookery of emperor penguins."

22 comments:

campy said...

Will it become as popular as Mao's jacket?

mikee said...

Why is our blog host surprised at racism in the NY Times? I, for one, expect the left to continue being as racist as they always have been, which is quite totally willing, nay, demanding, to define people exclusively by skin hue.

mikee said...

And I note that the jacket style lends itself well to having a strongly puncture & bullet resistant lining. Not that anyone in China, of course, would want to shoot or knife their totalitarian dictator. No, certainly not.

Paddy O said...

Party Members Only.

Jason said...

Hillary will be seen wearing one in 3... 2... 1...

Comanche Voter said...

Well aren't New York Times reporters and editors just silly geese? So they can rattle on about emperor penguins. See there's no harm--no "fowl" either.

bagoh20 said...

It doesn't invoke the same hunger pangs, but it does whisper to me that somewhere someone is disappearing due the pure power of its fashion spirit.

rhhardin said...

I wear a programmer's white tee shirt and trail shorts to show I don't give a damn.

Also you can wash everything in one load.

buwaya said...

They all have their style.
There is a US/European style after all, where every man is identically dressed.
In the Philippines, back in the 60s-80s, every man (in a group of officials in duty) would have a white barong and dark pants. Before and after there was more variety.

rehajm said...

Party Members Only.

Ahmadinejad originated that look.

rehajm said...

I wear a programmer's white tee shirt and trail shorts to show I don't give a damn.

We got it.

rhhardin said...

Actually, depending on the thread, some pinkish-looking color is picked up in washing from the iron in the well water, making it look like it's been washed along with a red shirt or something.

White socks made with two threads pick up the color cast only on the non-elastic part.

Fernandinande said...

NYT article titled "China’s Leader Wears Many Hats, but Only One Jacket."

Good old NYT, always dishonest, sometimes just plain wrong.

Here's a page of commie pictures, almost all in a regular western suit and tie.

Mary Beth said...

Speaking of Chinese jackets and Hillary, Who wore it better?

Ann Althouse said...

@Fernandinande

The linked NYT article does talk about that.

buwaya said...

Those pictures are mostly in international gatherings, not necessarily what's on Chinese media.

buwaya said...

Rather sad in a way, about China.
Their chieftains wear foreign clothing even now. Even Mao wore a derivation of a foreign military uniform.
The revolution (and civil wars, chaos, the Japanese, etc.) erased much of their native culture and color. Their upper classes were expunged, expelled, or suppressed. Moreover, little understood, China had been under onerous foreign domination for centuries before this (the Manchu).
Compare to the Philippines, which for better or worse has retained the old customs of its provincial gentry. We still have our national costumes (appropriate to the climate and a holy $&%$&%^ to take care of, as befits clothes best left to be maintained by servants), our country dancing, festivals and manners.

Titus said...

The jacket is hideous.

tits

Hagar said...

In most pictures I have seen they are wearing the international uniform: white shirt, red or blue tie, and darker blue suit from Johs. A. Banks - buy one, get two free.

buwaya said...

If he showed up in this -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanfu#/media/File:Jin_Wu_Di.jpg

And his posse like this -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_clothing#/media/File:Officiers_of_the_Six_Companies_b.jpg

It would be awesome.

John henry said...

I don't get it.

I've had jackets like that for as long as I can remember. Probably since 1st grade or so.

I have a tan one right now that I keep in the back seat of the car for if I go to a cold restaurant.

I seldom do but I've seen people, in the US, wearing jackets like that with a dress shirt and tie.

So he is trying to look like an Autozone customer service rep?

It's not a bad look, I think suits and even sport coats are somewhat silly.

Why is this news? Oh, yeah, anything to distract from Hilary's troubles. That's the NYT reason. Why did it merit a blog post?

John Henry

BudBrown said...
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