‘I was shocked’ after going to China this summer… What is a ‘Beijing Bikini’?

Photo = AFP In China, you can see men walking down the streets with their shirts lifted and their stomachs exposed. While foreign countries are showing great interest in this look, calling it the ‘Beijing Bikini’, it is becoming a social problem in China, with local authorities cracking down on this type of clothing. , saying that it damages the city’s image.

At the ‘Qingdao Global Beer Festival’ held in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China on the 11th, the appearance of Chinese men in Beijing bikinis became a hot topic. Some local people who could not stand the scorching heat walked around with their tops in public places, and fights were seen in different places.

Even though some local governments, including Shandong Province, Handan, Tianjin, and Shenyang, are cracking down hard, even raising taxes, to eliminate Beijing bikinis, the Chinese people’s love for Beijing bikinis shrinking. In May 2019, in Tianjin, a man was fined about 10,000 won for shopping without a lid at a supermarket. In addition, some local authorities have promoted a large public service advertising campaign urging people not to go without a roof in public places.

The Beijing bikini has already become a hot topic in Western countries. In the past, major foreign media such as CNN and the Washington Post (WP) reported that Beijing bikinis are “China’s top summer trend,” saying that some Chinese travelers are -always rolling up their shirts every summer.

In a promotional video that CNN brought in before, a woman was seen seeing her father sitting without a roof in a park where she went to play with her boyfriend. After that the man criticized the woman, saying, “Is that your father? That is so unworldly.”

However, some local people are dissatisfied with the efforts of the authorities to get rid of Beijing bikinis. Chinese netizens also raised comments such as “How are we supposed to deal with this heat wave?” and “(Toplessness) must be understood as a Chinese characteristic.”

At the same time, some say that, as the average temperature across China continues to rise, it is difficult to give up the Beijing Bikini. In fact, the average temperature across China last month rose 1.1 degrees compared to the same period last year, recording the highest number since 1961.

Jang Ji-min, Hankyung.com guest reporter newsinfo@hankyung.com