Xi wears ‘white cloak’ while meeting ethnic group
BEIJING: President Xi Jinping usually, depending on the occasion, wears a western suit, or a windbreaker that looks perfectly efficient on him or occasionally when he is attending military events, military fatigues.
Last Sunday, Xi took a break from his routine clothes and picked up something unusual from his wardrobe.
During an interaction with members of the minority Yi community in southwest China’s Sichuan province, Xi wore a flowing white cloak, very much like a poncho, slung over his shoulder.
“The white cloak, called chaerwa in Chinese, is a handsewn woollen poncho-like mantle worn by people of Yi ethnic group,” state media reported. In photos published by state media outlets, Xi was shown shaking hands and interacting with community members who were dressed in ethnic finery.
Besides his message on eliminating poverty, the flowing “chaerwa” was immediately noticed. “His unusual dressing - a white cloak – raised curiosity among netizens,” state-run English newspaper China Daily reported.
Most comments on the dress, it seems, were subsequently censored as the general secretary of the Communist Party of China possibly tops of the list of sensitive topics. “The cloak is woven with quality sheep wool in Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture.”