Close encounter of the lurid kind violates socialist values

THE BEIJING bikini is an eyeful. Exposed midriffs are everywhere – on the streets, on corners and in the multitude of malls dotted around the metropolis. Yep, men in the nation’s capital feeling hot under the collar have no qualms in yanking up their shirts and T-shirts to a touch under their armpits and parading around like that in public.

For a nation that seemingly prides itself on (pretending to) covet modesty in all aspects of their lives, Beijingers are not shy at showing off a bit (or a lot, depending on one’s disposition) of skin.

This place must have the shortest of the short cut-off denim Daisy Dukes per capita anywhere.

But what to do when the dog days of summer (39°C last Monday, 41°C on Tuesday) starts to bite and your Beijing bikini or cut-off shorts can only do so much to keep you cool?

Escape to the subway and choose one of the air-conditioned steel capsules zooming along one of 15 lines across the city? Walk around a mall or stay indoors?

Public pools? Stay away, say locals and expats who felt less than, er, swimmingly after having taken a dip with the masses.

Then there’s the R600 for a few hours at a hotel rooftop swimming feature.

However, none of the above for one local couple recently.

Whether it was the heat or the heat of the moment, the couple went into an airconditioned retailer, pulled some items off the rack and went inside a changeroom cubicle.

Inside, the woman stripped, the man fired up the old cellphone video function and the two proceeded to engage in a spot of coitus un-interrupt-us, filming their close encounters of a lurid kind.

The video was posted online and went viral on Chinese social media sites Weibo (China’s Twitter) and WeChat.

The official outcry was, as expected, swift, with claims by state media that the video had sparked “fierce condemnation from internet users”.

China’s internet regulator reprimanded web portals Sina and Tencent for their failure to prevent it from going viral.

Internet users are demanding strong action in the case, considered to be vulgar marketing, said a statement by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).

Uniqlo (the Japanese fashion retail giant), where the alleged incident went down, denied any involvement in the video.

It hasn’t hurt the brand though: selfie taking outside the store on the Sanlitun shopping strip has increased; others have gone on a cubicle hunt inside it and T-shirts showing the couple are reportedly doing brisk trade online.

On Sunday, the couple and three others were arrested.

If found to have “deliberately” posted the footage online, they will find themselves in the confines of a less than pleasant cubicle for up to two years.

A CAC official told media that the spread of the video had breached some “bottom lines” and had “violated core socialist values”.

The video, one could argue, is way less harmful or insidious, than, say, the feedback sections of most South African news websites.

But it presents a blurry enough issue for authorities.

It flies in the face of the socially constructed definition of modesty here and those who police it.

Bottoms and lines indeed.

● Yunus Kemp is the deputy editor of the Cape Argus. He is on a 10-month scholarship with the China Africa Press Centre.