Call the Fashion Police

What not to wear

Polishing up Beijing for the Olympics has extended to telling residents what not to wear.

The city government's advice, on top of campaigns to cut out public spitting and promote orderly queuing, has gone out to four million households.

The etiquette booklet from the Office of Capital Spiritual Civilization Construction Commission advises that there should be no more than three colour groups in your clothing, and wearing pyjamas and slippers to visit neighbours, as some residents do, is also out. It recommends dark-coloured socks, and says white socks should never be worn with black leather shoes.

There should be no public displays of affection, feet should be slightly apart or in the shape of a V or Y when standing, and a handshake should not last more than three seconds.

Don't ask foreigners their age, marital status, income, past experience, address, personal life, religious or political beliefs.

And you thought we had a nanny state? Well, advertising images asking us to drive carefully or eat well are nothing compared to this. I must admit that while it does give me some comfort that if Seinfeld was Chinese his bizarre penchant for doing the white socks/ dark jeans/ dark shoes faux pas would be forcibly altered, articles like these really raise questions as to how much countries like our own are endorsing these extreme demands on citizens and China's abysmal human rights records by participating in the Olympics. Not so long ago, the Government moved to ban ghost stories on the internet as it was worried that it would impact negatively on the Olympics. The Chinese Government gives new meaning to the notion of image control.