Chinese youth take fashion to the next level
Hong Kong was fun. Nice to get away. Returned to the first week of classes.
This semester students get to choose their courses. It’s a loosening of the requirements to allow the students a chance to explore some classes they may not have thought of before. Should be fun. As I meet the students during this first week, a new fashion seems to be making the rounds: Eye glass frames!
This is a place where glasses are an important part of living. Almost everyone wears some type of eye glasses. Because of the expense and safety concerns, most people do not have contacts. I usually have to take a part of one class to admonish my students to wear their glasses. Chinese students have the same worries about looking goofy and out of place as their American counterparts. What has been happening in the past year or so has been a change.
Walking through the shops you will finds hundreds of little shops selling sunglass knockoffs. Famous brands duplicated and copied then turned into fashion statements by some pop music idol of the moment. Alongside the trays of frames complete with lenses are trays of nothing but frames. I first noticed them on one of my subway trips into the heart of the city, they are now becoming part of the fashion scene. My students tell me that it is a way of making the eyes look larger. Not certain how true this is because I spend a lot of time wondering why there are no lenses in the frames.
This new habit seems to be equally divided between the boys and the girls. Sometimes it works very well. You see a person and nothing indicates that they are wearing just the frames. At other times it causes a double-take as one realizes that there is no piece of glass or plastic in the frame. Just an empty line of dark plastic on the face.
As with anyplace, fashion is more about perceptions than function. One student told me that students adopting this fashion felt self conscious when they were the only ones in the class without glasses. Another told me about the idea that it made the eyes larger.
Not sure how to interpret the style. This makes one see glasses in a new light.
Orpheus Allison
Guangzhou, China
orpheusallison@mac.com
