The Curious Case of the Pajamas

As a little girl, I loved my pajamas. They were airy and comfortable. They were pretty with lace and sometimes colourful fancy buttons. Above all, they were handmade by my mother.

But I stopped wearing pajamas, I don't remember when. Must be well into my teens. When outfits were an expression of the unique personality of a rebellious teen, who cared what I wore to bed. That must be when I got too lazy to change into the pajamas just for sleeping. Besides, mom had stopped making pajamas for us. I guess they're not so cute to make anymore since we were already big girls, so she stopped. Indeed, all other pajamas we found out there were nowhere near cute, nowhere close to the detailed workmanship that mom had displayed in her pieces, so no way would I spend any precious cent on any of those. So I stopped wearing pajamas.

Then, it became really interesting for me to watch on TV back then and even now, how the Chinese can parade the busiest streets of the city in their pajamas. When my aunt from Beijing visited in the 90s, she had no qualms wearing her pajamas everywhere. Honestly, I was rather flabbergasted.

Only very recently, I understood the significance of the pajamas to a Chinese back in those days, being very poor, when many clothes were hand-me-downs, how could one even think of having special clothes just for sleeping. So the pajamas were a symbol of status (and NYT says, coolness too). Someone who could afford the pajamas was of a certain social stature, especially when communism was at its peak and everyone was supposed to be equal. So it's only natural one would flaunt it at every available chance - out in the neighbourhood, at the market, riding public transport, at the most crowded and visible places of any gritty Chinese neighbourhood. Besides, living in tight communal quarters back in the day, it didn't make much sense changing out of them just to walk a few metres to buy some meat from across the street, did it?

Old habits die hard.

But China has grown so fast and in her race to join the top powers of the world, is also very rapidly shedding ugly old habits. Shanghai wants the pajamas off her streets now that the Expo is in full swing and the city is under tight scrutiny and criticised for every tiny flaw, oh, how many others will delight at seeing the poised Chinese superpower crumble. Like the legs of a pair of soft cotton pajamas.
Of course, people oppose it. Some do so because old habits die hard. Some do so because it's a piece of Shanghainese lifestyle and a chunk of China's past yanked out by force, and nobody likes to be forced to comply to anything that threatens that which is close to the heart. But with progress, they somehow must. Who will want to remember, or for that matter, need to remember, Shanghai by her colourful pajamas parade? Old habits die hard, but die they must. Soon, everyone will forget anyway.