@@TheLouisZhaoI mean they're not ugly but they're just not really capable of being pretty or cool if that makes sense. I think "boring" is a more apt term.
Honestly, when I first saw them years ago, I mostly thought they were both practical and good looking. I like that a lot of them aren't gendered, since there are problems with girls being sexualized from girls uniforms (white shirt being thin and see through, people looking up others skirts inappropriately, other issues of sexual harassment etc.) However, during uni where I didn't have time to express myself, clothing and getting dressed became an outlet for me. I can't be roaming the streets naked after all. I think my desire to dress up directly correlated with how much time I had to be creative in other areas of my life. Surprisingly, I think the other thing that helps was doing short story challenges lol
uniforms shouldnt need to be attractive, it's clothing for school, period. also tracksuits are more comfortable anyways, imagine wearing the equivalent of pyjamas to school every day, i do the same in uni lol. these tracksuits would be better for the kids who are insecure about their bodies too, nothing better than a baggy tracksuit to cover everything up than be forced to wear a skirt to school.
The best thing about these tracksuit uniforms is that you can run around in them so it doesn't discourage you from being physically active! Now you can run to school, run home, play sports along the way etc...! Basically you can let kids be kids!
@@ruriva4931 By western standards, yes school uniforms should balance formality, aesthetics, and comfort. China doesn't follow western standards, China has its own goals for its own people and won't blindly and dogmatically follow the western way of doing things.
I might be the odd one out but I would have love to have this tracksuits in school. I grew up lower class and was made fun of because I didn’t have name brands of shoes or clothing. It’s not like the kids can’t express themselves outside of school right?
That's a great point! I actually included this in the original script but had to cut it out because the video was getting too long haha. One of the practical purposes of the school uniform in China was indeed to discourage this kind of materialistic social comparison. Unfortunately it sometimes generates an adverse effect where students socially compare more aggressively in areas where they are allowed (for example in my school comparing sneakers was a big deal on sports day) And sorry to hear you were made fun of for that as a kid. Kids can be mean indeed
@SpiderWitch13 - I was in similar situation. My family in Canada couldn't afford brand name things. And we bought no-name track pants and sweaters from Walmart and Chinatown whenever they were on discount. And I would wear mostly the same thing to school every day. I didn't get bullied for it because many other people in my neighbourhood were low-income and also did the same thing. The kids that did dress more fancy didn't give us a hard time, because there weren't many rich kids in our area, so they were respectful to everyone.
I think it's more practical and less sexualization. It's nice. As a Thai girl I can't breathe in my uniform( I'm not chubby) and would feel very awkward! I would use my PE uniform all day everyday instead coz we don't have changing room. (If we have PE in that day, we wear PE uniform all day.) Some strict teacher would scrutinize tho if you dress in PE uniform and all the other students wear normal uniform.
There were a few studies that say good-looking uniforms boost confidence and performance. So they don't have to look like Japanese and Korean uniforms, but it would be nice for them to be better designed.
i'm from Chile and my school had two uniforms, one that's slightly similar to english school uniforms (polo shirt, v-neck sweater, pleated skirts for the girls, trousers for the boys, black leather shoes...) and another one that was a track suit (a hoodie with a zipper and matching pants, white sneakers, white t-shirt). in theory, the tracksuit had to be worn ONLY during the days we had sports/physical ed, but in practice most of the school wore it most of the days (if not all), specially the youngest kids (kindergarten and 1st-4th grade), and the oldest ones (seniors that are too busy studying for the entrance exam test). this story may seem trivial but i think it shows that, when they have the opportunity, schoolgoers will choose the tracksuit over the more formal, westernized uniform.
Oh very interesting. Thanks for sharing. Yes if I were given the choice, I'd probably wear tracksuits most of the time too. Don't want to bother putting on a shirt everyday ahah. I think I'd be equally unhappy if I'm forced to only wear tracksuits every day though. Perhaps there's a rebellious teenager in me that prefers some freedom of choice
They might be ugly, but for very long school hours they sure look comfy as hell. I feel like that's more valuable to a child. I'd pick something a bit more stylish, maybe with a softer material, that a child could feel confident in, but it looks loose and easy to move around in. I guess making your kids look undateable shouldn't come at the cost of their self esteem lol
Haha yes they are indeed quite comfortable (assuming the schools didn't cut corners with the material). Also good point about self-esteem, I'm not sure self-esteem is that prioritized in traditional Chinese education/upbringing though 😂😂
I actually like it more than the uniforms in South Korea and Japan. The Chinese uniform doesn't promote any beauty centered mindset among girls and isn't sexualized like the Japanese school girl uniform.
Is the uniform itself actually sexual in any way or is it pervs and anime that have caused it to be sexualised? UK uniforms are often the same more or less. Shirt or polo shirt with a blazer and trousers for boys and skirts for girls. The skirts tend to be longer though and most girls I went to school with would wear leggings underneath most of the time. A lot of schools would reprimand you if your thigh was exposed (so actively trying to prevent sexualisation). A lot of schools, like the one I went to, also let girls wear trousers if they preferred. It's quite funny. That in a few schools, the boys aren't allowed to wear shorts, even in the summer. And school uniforms get HOT. So the boys will all come in wearing skirts and say "what you going to do? It's in the uniform code" (So British protest school femboys is a thing) 🤣🤣🤣
I am canadian. And out of all the uniforms i've seen on television (eg. western private schools, 1970 british school ec..) and now the ones you've shown of japan, korea etc...I personally think the Chinese jump suit uniforms look the best out of all of them. Why? Because: 1) they look so comfortable 2) they seem easy to maintain (ie. don't need to iron all the time) 3) they make me think of Beijing Wushu team - like Jet Li doing somersaults with swords, or Donnie Yen doing backflips with a battle staff. I think it was Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs that said something along the lines of, "if you don't have to think about what you wear, you can focus on other things", and that's why they dress so plainly all the time. The korean uniforms look too materialistic/consumerist/pretentious. The japanese uniforms, british uniforms, private school uniforms...those look so "stiff/rigid" and "stuck up", like you'll be wiped by your master if you have even the slightest crease in your clothing. The Chinese jump suit uniforms don't suffer from any of the flaws of the other uniforms mentioned! And these jump suits don't inhibit you from running around and sweating. Cheers to the people who came up with their designs!!!
Requiring school uniform by itself already reinforce collectivism. There's no need to make them ugly if all you want to do is to suppress individuality. That's the same reason why school uniform is imposed the world around. (Even though students always find a way to differentiate anyway, with the quality of the fabrics or other minor details. The desire to be differentiated particularly at that age is not totally suppressible). If you really want everyone to be collectivist, it' would be much more effective to just make everyone have the same haircut! I think ugliness is just a separate goal, to suppress early romance as you pointed out. It has little to do with individuality vs collectiveness.
That's a good distinction. The government policy noted collectivism as an explicitly purpose, but "ugly" was not an explicit requirement. It's interesting you mentioned haircut though. Many Chinese schools do have rules on haircut (but some schools are stricter than others). For instance my school said guys only allowed to have one style of haircut (a kind of buzz cut) but were not as strict with enforcing that rule.
Interestingly enough I wish I had uniforms while I was in school. A lot of times I didn't want to worry about what I was going to wear or how to impress others at school and a lot of peoppe would comment on each others clothing especially when it came to wealth ("Oh she/he looks like they can't afford new clothes!" Or something along those lines). Even these tracksuits would seem appealing to me haha. Great video. Very interesting!
That's a great observation. There's another comment that pointed out something similar as well! I'll include what I wrote below just in case you are curious to have a read! One of the practical purposes of the school uniform in China was indeed to discourage this kind of materialistic social comparison. Unfortunately it sometimes generates an adverse effect where students socially compare more aggressively in areas where they are allowed (for example in my school comparing sneakers was a big deal on sports day)
It depends on your school ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I had a uniform in elementary school and it didn't do much to stop you from worrying about what to wear. Some teachers were strict and some weren't, during the winter months they had a debate of whether leggings should be allowed because the school only said gray pants but didn't specifiy if leggings, tights or socks should be gray too. Our colors were purple shirt, gray pants /skirt but some people would wear gray shirts or purple pants and some teachers would take students out of class for wearing the wrong colors, or students thought they were allowed to wear a gray sweater when they should have worn a purple one. So when I got dressed it would be more stressful "can I wear a gray hoodie? Some teachers let me wear it, others won't." So it depends on your school and the teachers. Nowadays the school doesn't have the uniform anymore and when I visited them some months ago they're less strict which I'm grateful for. It did nothing to hide wealth either because wealthy kids had cleaner uniforms, jewelry, phones, bookbags etc. poorer kids were in detention because they couldn't afford it or got the colors wrong. Even though my current school doesn't have a uniform, I still can't tell who's rich or poor. Name brands arent that popular anymore and most students like thrifting or cheaper clothes like shein, amazon, etc. Last week I was talking to my classmates about the cool stuff they got at the thrift store. I think uniforms may do the opposite effect where it makes students want to flex more so they went insane on jewelry or bookbags because the school didn't restrict those. But in my school with few clothing restrictions, people are more relaxed. I think schools should do more to stop bullying than restricting how students dress. Even though I had a uniform in elementary school, I got badly bullied. My middle and high schools had no uniforms and had no bullying problems because they kicked out the bullies, put them in seperate classes, took away their afterschool club instead of restricting how students dressed. I don't want to dismiss your concerns or make you feel bad or anything. I just wanted to share my opinions too and I hope you have a good day. 😀👍
Lots of girls actually modify the pants to make them slimmer. It was trendy at the time when I was in high school and it was subtle enough to not get caught. I don’t think the teachers would be cool with students wasting precious time modifying uniforms, so whoever did it would make those modifications with subtlety in mind.
I think it's much better, for the young girls at least. There is no need for it to be pretty, practicality and comfort should come first. Children in school are just that, children. The way female uniforms in Japan/Korea are underhandedly coded sexual (short skirt, tight fitting clothes) always irked me. Those are kids you're ogling! China is doing it better.
Japan's School Uniform Skirts aren't actually short, it is usually the students that fold them so they can become shorter. Standard Skirt length is to the knee or below.
@@DL-idk They often do, in most places around the world. In most of the West, the school uniform you can freely choose between skirt or pants, regardless of gender, sex, or any other characteristic you might use. As far as I know, most places, the girls can also choose to wear pants. I find it interesting that you essentially assume that the girls want to wear pants, that it isn't a choice.
I went to an international school in china so i had a mixture of both the chinees one and the more esatern style. On normal days we would wear the tracksuits and baggy tshirts and on important days like picture day or special events we wore the skirt and suit combo. But we are free to wear both versions, for example i had one girl in my class that exclusively wore the wester style one but she did get scolded when we had to do morning exercise because she was wearing a skirt. funny story because we have to show that we are wearing uniform when it was winter we would stuff up to 4 layer under a unifrofm jacket and it would make our arms very stiff lol
Here in spain in public schools the "uniform" is literally the same as china, at least when I was in school. Just some sports clothes which we didn't even use everyday.
Ohh interesting, I didn't know that! Seems like the internet is showing me the private school uniform when I googled it (blazers and trousers/skirts, kind of like the British style)
I think this video got the wrong audience 😅 but as someone who's entire school life has had uniforms. I can understand what you're trying to say here, they remind me of getting prepared to do factory or generic office work. I understand uniforms are made to kill individuality and personality but hell the uniforms itself can at least try to have some uniqueness. Like my high school had different shirt colors for each year and at least allowed you to wear whatever accessories you wanted to the uniforms. As long as its from the school store or not overly distracting like bold necklaces, etc.
Oh it’s so nice that your school allowed accessories! I remember at my school, the only accessory we could wear was a watch. 😅 They even had strict rules about what shoes we could wear-unless it was a sports day By the way why do you think the video got the wrong audience, just curious 😊
I'm guessing you're younger than me and so might be missing a crucial element: this was the look popular in the 90s, exactly when the uniforms came out. These horrible garrish colours, the sort of baggy but not exactly oversize track suit thing was fashionable, at least in the west, and it's likely that the schools took a comfortable design (track suits) and made it in the contemporary style. The issue is not updating the look with the times. I don't think Chinese kids would be averse to wearing modern joggers with a t-shirt and a zip up sweatshirt.
Because we moved a bit around Ireland I got to wear four different uniforms, two in primary school and two in secondary In my first primary school I was only in junior and senior infants (age 4-5) so our uniforms were more like the ones in china Warm green cotton tracksuit and a polo shirt underneath My second primary school was girls only and we had a checkered white, gray and light red skirt that fastened like a kilt in two places and opened into one big flat piece, with a white shirt and a navy blue jumper with a tie (yes even for the 4 year olds! (My dad got me a real one and taught me to tie it but others had fake ones on rubber bands) My first secondary school had a gray pleated skirt and gray jumper with a black jumper for the final year And my last secondary school had a rich royal blue pleated skirt (longer than knee length ofc, like all of them, but peaple would roll them at the waist to make them shorter), matching jumper and light blue shirt (wayyy to much of a very saturated blue, p much like this 🔵) All in all the only thing I disliked about the uniforms was not being able to wear the trousers of the tracksuit uniform we had for PE in every school (all different too but nuch closer to the chinese ones) as I hated wearing skirts So tbh while im very used to uniforms I'd have preferred the chinese ones People showed individuality with their hair and bags, their pencil cases, what stationary they used etc I know some people got into trouble for too much makeup or facial piercings And while all the schools had a very thick dark navy coat with the school crest as part of the uniform most also let you wear other coats, especially in summer when the school ones were too hot
I like the comfy part, but they really DON’T need to be ugly in color IMO. We had some of the ugliest uniform with some of the most awkward color patterns back then and I hated it. The material was also weird. It stained easily and many marks were just impossible to wash off no matter how I tried. The worst part? We were used to being ugly by the time we graduated. It’s one thing to know how to dress up but choose not to. It’s another thing to be completely clueless about how to make yourself look presentable. I remember the day when we all went back to school to get the diploma. Technically the school has already ended, so it was the one day that we weren’t obligated to wear school uniforms. Many students (including me) were walking around in somehow even worse color combo than the school uniform simply because we didn’t know how to make ourselves look good. It has done more damage than good IMO. Lots of Chinese people have no taste or bad taste until late into adulthood (some stuck with bad taste their entire life) except for a few talented unicorns or those who didn’t attend the “good schools” where ugly uniforms are obligatory. And you still have people in power SA young girls anyway. It’s not like not sexualizing them through pretty clothes had changed anything at all.
Actually I would rather wear the Chinese school uniforms. Cuz it is a pain in the butt to dress up every day. Just put on a t-shirt, track suit and sweat pants and you are all done.
Millennial here, first day of primary school just before 2000, at that time the uniform for my public primary school in Beijing was similar to Japanese sailor suit, we had dark blue with white line highlights, for winter thicker zhongshanzhuang type jacket and pants. When I came back to China in 03-04, the uniform then changed to those tracksuit styles. It was for sure more comfortable, last longer and more versatile.
I'm from the USA and my uniform was a collar shirts normally white but some schools use other colors and black or blue pants now a lot of school at lest where i from are trying to get rid of uniforms just want to share that
Oh interesting to know. I did the remainder of my highschool in Canada and the school I went to didn't have uniforms at all. They had hoodies and stuff that you could buy but they were more like merch lol
Hi from southern New Zealand 👋 theyre a hell of a lot better than what I had to wear to school in the north island 😬 everything was grey. When my parents moved to central Otago in southern New Zealand the uniform for Dunstan high was red😂 and grey😂😅 now that's horrible 😅
And the real horror is the uniforms are STILL the same after 40 years😂 I looked them up😖 what does that say about New Zealand 😬😂 China's taste in high school uniforms is much better at least😂
with the exception of the ugly argument to discourage dating, the same arguments can be applied to all school uniforms in general. the ugly argument isnt even that convincing since korean and japanese students dont seem to engage in dating much either.
I'm from Russia and our typical school uniform across the country is dark blue office style clothing. There are stricter schools which only allow you to wear a dark blue trousers or a skirt (10 centimeters above the knee being the minimum length), a jacket or a vest and a shirt of pastel colors. There are also schools which allow their students to wear anything at least a bit office-styled. I was in a stricter school, but I liked the uniform, and I generally believe the uniform like that must be present because it hugely affects discipline and students don't really need to think what should they wear at mornings, haha😂 That's why I was a little dumbfounded when I found out what Chinese school uniform looked like. I didn't get why it was like this until I watched this video. And now that I know, I think it can work! Girls also don't need to worry about what they should wear and everyone is kinda the same, so there will be no insecurities about a certain uniform combination or a piece looking off on you... I can understand why people don't like it too tho. We can't change it, so I think it's just good to know either way :) Thank you for the video!
It's kinda like just a sports uniform, I guess. A bit uglier than my school uniform but not too far off (I'm from Australia at a school where we're allowed to wear our sports uniform everyday).
In india too we have tracksuits we have to wear it on Wednesday and Saturday, and our normal uniform, specially high school girls' dress were kinda or related traditional wear ( salwaar suit, mine was pants kurta and vest) A very questionable choice and even color scheme were weird but still comfortable and everyone can customize it to there body type and boys had shirt and pants, I lived in teir two city so, both Government and private school even some of colleges to had this type of dresses can't say about Mumbai, Delhi or big cities specially the private school but Government school has same dresses all over the country.
Singaporeans, Thais and Malaysians school uniforms looks better than Chinese uniforms too. My school uniforms were full white from our shirts to our trousers and our shoes.
Modern China is founded on manufacturing industries. Imagine a bunch of factory workers apply their individual artistic taste on the assembly line, the quality control would be a nightmare. As China moves forward, this cookie cutter style manufacturing would be relegated to robots. It would be interesting to see how the government would adapt.
Ya they were super movable. There was a photo that I cut out of the final version of the video where there's a track-and-field athlete in my school doing an event in the school uniform shorts (he didn't even think it was necessary to change out of it because it's already optimized for movement)
I was always very individualistic, yet I was the only one in school who only put off my uniform on the "free dress days" to put on a Halloween costume. When I dress, I tend to desire to make abstraction of the fact I have a body. I am the type of person who would gladly put something like that to school. Also...Trying to desexualize youths does not work. Teenagers are horny. Like, in XVIIIth and XIXth century France, women socializing was considered vulgar and sexy, and partially why Tea Parties never quite became a thing for French socialites.
Haha I heard some of the fancy private schools in China had western school uniforms with blazers and stuff. Seems like not all of them do it though lol
@TheLouisZhao I worked at 4 different ones in 3 cities, and had friends at others and they all had track suits. There might be a British or Japanese school in China that does the uniform, but they are rare. I lived in China for 7 years and never even heard of such a thing.
Haha not according to this comment section. Been seeing many people liking the Chinese school uniforms actually. Glad to see so much support for it around the world LOL
Ya it's definitely very comfy (assuming the school/manufactures didn't cut corners with the materials). A lot of Chinese parents also prefer the current style of uniforms due to its modesty and de-sexualization like you mentioned. The sexualization of the other country's uniforms are more likely due to dramatized media representation though. In Japan for instance, the school uniforms are usually quite modest in practice.
Am I the only one who thinks that the Chinese school uniforms look like the uniforms from squid game? Given China's economic situation, I can see where the inspiration possibly comes from...
What a coincident that you also noticed that! I also went down this rabbit hole in my research. As far as I could dig up, the squid game tracksuits were likely inspired by Korea's gym uniform in the 70s/80s that the squid game directors used to wear at school (I suppose there are Korean schools that have a 'standard uniform' and a 'gym uniform' that students wear to gym class). I also tried to find out if the Chinese school uniforms were inspired by the Korean gym school uniforms but could not find any conclusive evidence for that.
China is greatly diminishing it's soft power by reducing the sexiness of its youth. Attractive young people are a major form of soft power currency. South Korea is smarter, they allpw their youth to be fashionable and in turn trhat gives their culture greater social power on the world stage. The k-pop engine runs on hot young talented people and has massively increased korea's standing in the world. People are aware of korea largely because of their cultural media. China really looks like an empure about to collapse super fast from mismanagement. Not the civilization, but the economic entity, the nation-state of China, is screwed. The people are strong, the civilization will continue in a different form. All this oppression might leqad to a swing to the opposite and go individualistic in some group orgy of freedom. But there are so many deep collectivist cultural elements that will not be so easily defeated, so I doubt it will ever become quite as individualistic as the usa. Fun to see what happens in this era of rapid change everywhere. I hope that billions of people don't die in the process.
@@ihatecabbage7270 Seems counterproductive, reduce their power on the world stage and reduce birth rates, directly undermining their primary source of power, their numbers. India has passed them so it's dumb to do anything that reduces trheir population.
My first thought is freedom of movement. Gotta keep everyone ready to defend the empire. Those school uniforms would be bad for sending the kids out to war if enemies suddenly attacked. I'm so glad we didn't have to wear uniforms in school. We had gym shorts and shirt, but that was it, and they were just normal gym clothing and only worn in gym class. I didn't watch mine all year, became truly awful :)
The school uniform I had in the UK was a black blazer, trousers, jumper and a white shirt with a purple clip on tie. Problem was or massive con, in the summer, you would roast in the scorching heat and sweat buckets. 🪣 😅
@@TheLouisZhao Summer version when I was at school was only a short-sleeved shirt instead of long sleeved one. We were allowed to take off the blazer and/or jumper as well. But still full length polyester/wool trousers all year round. Varies a bit from school to school.
I actually like it more than the uniforms in South Korea and Japan. The Chinese uniform doesn't promote any beauty centered mindset among girls and isn't sexualized like the Japanese school girl uniform.
Some people misunderstand, but most Japanese schools have strict rules on how to dress for school uniforms. For example, skirts are supposed to be knee-length, but many female students prefer to wear skirts that show too much leg because it is more fashionable. In other words, the school is not forcing the students to dress sexually, but they are breaking the rules and dressing sexually on their own. For example, in the northern part of Japan, where it snows a lot in winter and the temperature drops below freezing, it is recommended that students wear jerseys to school, but many girls wear skirts to school. Sexualized uniforms are often shown in the media, but most of the original Japanese uniforms are modest.
Interesting point of view. I don't think they should be called ugly uniforms. Just call it what it is, "track suits".
Good to see that not everyone thinks they are ugly haha. Ya they are kind of like a combination of baggy tracksuits and sweat pants.
yes, and tracksuits are ugly
@@TheLouisZhaoI mean they're not ugly but they're just not really capable of being pretty or cool if that makes sense. I think "boring" is a more apt term.
I think we all know tracksuits are ugly.
Honestly, when I first saw them years ago, I mostly thought they were both practical and good looking.
I like that a lot of them aren't gendered, since there are problems with girls being sexualized from girls uniforms (white shirt being thin and see through, people looking up others skirts inappropriately, other issues of sexual harassment etc.)
However, during uni where I didn't have time to express myself, clothing and getting dressed became an outlet for me. I can't be roaming the streets naked after all. I think my desire to dress up directly correlated with how much time I had to be creative in other areas of my life. Surprisingly, I think the other thing that helps was doing short story challenges lol
uniforms shouldnt need to be attractive, it's clothing for school, period. also tracksuits are more comfortable anyways, imagine wearing the equivalent of pyjamas to school every day, i do the same in uni lol.
these tracksuits would be better for the kids who are insecure about their bodies too, nothing better than a baggy tracksuit to cover everything up than be forced to wear a skirt to school.
Looking "good" is also very distractive in a school environment when the primary goal is learning. All needed are comfort and functionality.
The best thing about these tracksuit uniforms is that you can run around in them so it doesn't discourage you from being physically active! Now you can run to school, run home, play sports along the way etc...! Basically you can let kids be kids!
School uniforms should balance formality, aesthetics, and comfort. Track suits as the only option is way too far to one side.
@@ruriva4931yeah at least expand the wardrobe a little bit am I right
@@ruriva4931 By western standards, yes school uniforms should balance formality, aesthetics, and comfort. China doesn't follow western standards, China has its own goals for its own people and won't blindly and dogmatically follow the western way of doing things.
Honestly, I think is comfy af, cheers from chile
haha yes, it's very comfy indeed
Comfort beats everything
It really does doesn't it
I might be the odd one out but I would have love to have this tracksuits in school. I grew up lower class and was made fun of because I didn’t have name brands of shoes or clothing. It’s not like the kids can’t express themselves outside of school right?
That's a great point! I actually included this in the original script but had to cut it out because the video was getting too long haha.
One of the practical purposes of the school uniform in China was indeed to discourage this kind of materialistic social comparison. Unfortunately it sometimes generates an adverse effect where students socially compare more aggressively in areas where they are allowed (for example in my school comparing sneakers was a big deal on sports day)
And sorry to hear you were made fun of for that as a kid. Kids can be mean indeed
@@TheLouisZhao why did you cut it out? Lots of people love content that's 20 minutes or longer (including myself).
I guess they would find another point of comparison to mock you - e.g. by smartphones. But I generally agree
@SpiderWitch13 - I was in similar situation. My family in Canada couldn't afford brand name things. And we bought no-name track pants and sweaters from Walmart and Chinatown whenever they were on discount. And I would wear mostly the same thing to school every day. I didn't get bullied for it because many other people in my neighbourhood were low-income and also did the same thing. The kids that did dress more fancy didn't give us a hard time, because there weren't many rich kids in our area, so they were respectful to everyone.
Yeah, but it's still one worry less. I wish I had a full school uniform (we only had the shirt as a uniform) as @@blessedsnake8246
I think it's more practical and less sexualization. It's nice. As a Thai girl I can't breathe in my uniform( I'm not chubby) and would feel very awkward! I would use my PE uniform all day everyday instead coz we don't have changing room. (If we have PE in that day, we wear PE uniform all day.) Some strict teacher would scrutinize tho if you dress in PE uniform and all the other students wear normal uniform.
There were a few studies that say good-looking uniforms boost confidence and performance. So they don't have to look like Japanese and Korean uniforms, but it would be nice for them to be better designed.
Oh interesting, ya that's definitely some good reasons for them to make an effort on the design, especially if it boosts academic performance
i'm from Chile and my school had two uniforms, one that's slightly similar to english school uniforms (polo shirt, v-neck sweater, pleated skirts for the girls, trousers for the boys, black leather shoes...) and another one that was a track suit (a hoodie with a zipper and matching pants, white sneakers, white t-shirt). in theory, the tracksuit had to be worn ONLY during the days we had sports/physical ed, but in practice most of the school wore it most of the days (if not all), specially the youngest kids (kindergarten and 1st-4th grade), and the oldest ones (seniors that are too busy studying for the entrance exam test). this story may seem trivial but i think it shows that, when they have the opportunity, schoolgoers will choose the tracksuit over the more formal, westernized uniform.
Oh very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Yes if I were given the choice, I'd probably wear tracksuits most of the time too. Don't want to bother putting on a shirt everyday ahah.
I think I'd be equally unhappy if I'm forced to only wear tracksuits every day though. Perhaps there's a rebellious teenager in me that prefers some freedom of choice
the problem with Japanese and Korean uniforms is that they have to take actual time to put on
They might be ugly, but for very long school hours they sure look comfy as hell. I feel like that's more valuable to a child. I'd pick something a bit more stylish, maybe with a softer material, that a child could feel confident in, but it looks loose and easy to move around in. I guess making your kids look undateable shouldn't come at the cost of their self esteem lol
Haha yes they are indeed quite comfortable (assuming the schools didn't cut corners with the material). Also good point about self-esteem, I'm not sure self-esteem is that prioritized in traditional Chinese education/upbringing though 😂😂
I actually like it more than the uniforms in South Korea and Japan. The Chinese uniform doesn't promote any beauty centered mindset among girls and isn't sexualized like the Japanese school girl uniform.
Yes!!!
Is the uniform itself actually sexual in any way or is it pervs and anime that have caused it to be sexualised? UK uniforms are often the same more or less. Shirt or polo shirt with a blazer and trousers for boys and skirts for girls. The skirts tend to be longer though and most girls I went to school with would wear leggings underneath most of the time. A lot of schools would reprimand you if your thigh was exposed (so actively trying to prevent sexualisation). A lot of schools, like the one I went to, also let girls wear trousers if they preferred.
It's quite funny. That in a few schools, the boys aren't allowed to wear shorts, even in the summer. And school uniforms get HOT. So the boys will all come in wearing skirts and say "what you going to do? It's in the uniform code" (So British protest school femboys is a thing)
🤣🤣🤣
Still ugly
Nah its ugly
agreed
I am canadian. And out of all the uniforms i've seen on television (eg. western private schools, 1970 british school ec..) and now the ones you've shown of japan, korea etc...I personally think the Chinese jump suit uniforms look the best out of all of them. Why? Because:
1) they look so comfortable
2) they seem easy to maintain (ie. don't need to iron all the time)
3) they make me think of Beijing Wushu team - like Jet Li doing somersaults with swords, or Donnie Yen doing backflips with a battle staff.
I think it was Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs that said something along the lines of, "if you don't have to think about what you wear, you can focus on other things", and that's why they dress so plainly all the time.
The korean uniforms look too materialistic/consumerist/pretentious. The japanese uniforms, british uniforms, private school uniforms...those look so "stiff/rigid" and "stuck up", like you'll be wiped by your master if you have even the slightest crease in your clothing.
The Chinese jump suit uniforms don't suffer from any of the flaws of the other uniforms mentioned! And these jump suits don't inhibit you from running around and sweating. Cheers to the people who came up with their designs!!!
Requiring school uniform by itself already reinforce collectivism. There's no need to make them ugly if all you want to do is to suppress individuality. That's the same reason why school uniform is imposed the world around. (Even though students always find a way to differentiate anyway, with the quality of the fabrics or other minor details. The desire to be differentiated particularly at that age is not totally suppressible). If you really want everyone to be collectivist, it' would be much more effective to just make everyone have the same haircut! I think ugliness is just a separate goal, to suppress early romance as you pointed out. It has little to do with individuality vs collectiveness.
That's a good distinction. The government policy noted collectivism as an explicitly purpose, but "ugly" was not an explicit requirement.
It's interesting you mentioned haircut though. Many Chinese schools do have rules on haircut (but some schools are stricter than others). For instance my school said guys only allowed to have one style of haircut (a kind of buzz cut) but were not as strict with enforcing that rule.
It's not ugly, it's just from the 90s.
They have learned to define themselves on a deeper level that goes beyond mere visual adornment.
@@PhoenlxA lol, keep on believing that is the true nature of human teenagers, no matter which culture they are from
Interestingly enough I wish I had uniforms while I was in school. A lot of times I didn't want to worry about what I was going to wear or how to impress others at school and a lot of peoppe would comment on each others clothing especially when it came to wealth ("Oh she/he looks like they can't afford new clothes!" Or something along those lines). Even these tracksuits would seem appealing to me haha. Great video. Very interesting!
That's a great observation. There's another comment that pointed out something similar as well! I'll include what I wrote below just in case you are curious to have a read!
One of the practical purposes of the school uniform in China was indeed to discourage this kind of materialistic social comparison. Unfortunately it sometimes generates an adverse effect where students socially compare more aggressively in areas where they are allowed (for example in my school comparing sneakers was a big deal on sports day)
It depends on your school ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I had a uniform in elementary school and it didn't do much to stop you from worrying about what to wear. Some teachers were strict and some weren't, during the winter months they had a debate of whether leggings should be allowed because the school only said gray pants but didn't specifiy if leggings, tights or socks should be gray too. Our colors were purple shirt, gray pants /skirt but some people would wear gray shirts or purple pants and some teachers would take students out of class for wearing the wrong colors, or students thought they were allowed to wear a gray sweater when they should have worn a purple one. So when I got dressed it would be more stressful "can I wear a gray hoodie? Some teachers let me wear it, others won't." So it depends on your school and the teachers. Nowadays the school doesn't have the uniform anymore and when I visited them some months ago they're less strict which I'm grateful for.
It did nothing to hide wealth either because wealthy kids had cleaner uniforms, jewelry, phones, bookbags etc. poorer kids were in detention because they couldn't afford it or got the colors wrong.
Even though my current school doesn't have a uniform, I still can't tell who's rich or poor. Name brands arent that popular anymore and most students like thrifting or cheaper clothes like shein, amazon, etc. Last week I was talking to my classmates about the cool stuff they got at the thrift store. I think uniforms may do the opposite effect where it makes students want to flex more so they went insane on jewelry or bookbags because the school didn't restrict those. But in my school with few clothing restrictions, people are more relaxed.
I think schools should do more to stop bullying than restricting how students dress. Even though I had a uniform in elementary school, I got badly bullied. My middle and high schools had no uniforms and had no bullying problems because they kicked out the bullies, put them in seperate classes, took away their afterschool club instead of restricting how students dressed.
I don't want to dismiss your concerns or make you feel bad or anything. I just wanted to share my opinions too and I hope you have a good day. 😀👍
Deep thinking, as an abc I appreciate this. Thanks for your perspective Louis
Thank you!
Bro mewed so good so now he got best сhin that I've ever seen.
Lots of girls actually modify the pants to make them slimmer. It was trendy at the time when I was in high school and it was subtle enough to not get caught. I don’t think the teachers would be cool with students wasting precious time modifying uniforms, so whoever did it would make those modifications with subtlety in mind.
I think it's much better, for the young girls at least. There is no need for it to be pretty, practicality and comfort should come first. Children in school are just that, children. The way female uniforms in Japan/Korea are underhandedly coded sexual (short skirt, tight fitting clothes) always irked me. Those are kids you're ogling! China is doing it better.
Japan's School Uniform Skirts aren't actually short, it is usually the students that fold them so they can become shorter.
Standard Skirt length is to the knee or below.
Girls should have the choice between pants and skirts IMO. Skirts are just not very practical in many scenarios.
@@DL-idk They often do, in most places around the world. In most of the West, the school uniform you can freely choose between skirt or pants, regardless of gender, sex, or any other characteristic you might use.
As far as I know, most places, the girls can also choose to wear pants.
I find it interesting that you essentially assume that the girls want to wear pants, that it isn't a choice.
I went to an international school in china so i had a mixture of both the chinees one and the more esatern style. On normal days we would wear the tracksuits and baggy tshirts and on important days like picture day or special events we wore the skirt and suit combo.
But we are free to wear both versions, for example i had one girl in my class that exclusively wore the wester style one but she did get scolded when we had to do morning exercise because she was wearing a skirt.
funny story because we have to show that we are wearing uniform when it was winter we would stuff up to 4 layer under a unifrofm jacket and it would make our arms very stiff lol
Here in spain in public schools the "uniform" is literally the same as china, at least when I was in school. Just some sports clothes which we didn't even use everyday.
Ohh interesting, I didn't know that! Seems like the internet is showing me the private school uniform when I googled it (blazers and trousers/skirts, kind of like the British style)
I think this video got the wrong audience 😅 but as someone who's entire school life has had uniforms. I can understand what you're trying to say here, they remind me of getting prepared to do factory or generic office work. I understand uniforms are made to kill individuality and personality but hell the uniforms itself can at least try to have some uniqueness.
Like my high school had different shirt colors for each year and at least allowed you to wear whatever accessories you wanted to the uniforms. As long as its from the school store or not overly distracting like bold necklaces, etc.
Oh it’s so nice that your school allowed accessories! I remember at my school, the only accessory we could wear was a watch. 😅 They even had strict rules about what shoes we could wear-unless it was a sports day
By the way why do you think the video got the wrong audience, just curious 😊
I'm guessing you're younger than me and so might be missing a crucial element: this was the look popular in the 90s, exactly when the uniforms came out. These horrible garrish colours, the sort of baggy but not exactly oversize track suit thing was fashionable, at least in the west, and it's likely that the schools took a comfortable design (track suits) and made it in the contemporary style. The issue is not updating the look with the times. I don't think Chinese kids would be averse to wearing modern joggers with a t-shirt and a zip up sweatshirt.
Because we moved a bit around Ireland I got to wear four different uniforms, two in primary school and two in secondary
In my first primary school I was only in junior and senior infants (age 4-5) so our uniforms were more like the ones in china
Warm green cotton tracksuit and a polo shirt underneath
My second primary school was girls only and we had a checkered white, gray and light red skirt that fastened like a kilt in two places and opened into one big flat piece, with a white shirt and a navy blue jumper with a tie (yes even for the 4 year olds! (My dad got me a real one and taught me to tie it but others had fake ones on rubber bands)
My first secondary school had a gray pleated skirt and gray jumper with a black jumper for the final year
And my last secondary school had a rich royal blue pleated skirt (longer than knee length ofc, like all of them, but peaple would roll them at the waist to make them shorter), matching jumper and light blue shirt (wayyy to much of a very saturated blue, p much like this 🔵)
All in all the only thing I disliked about the uniforms was not being able to wear the trousers of the tracksuit uniform we had for PE in every school (all different too but nuch closer to the chinese ones) as I hated wearing skirts
So tbh while im very used to uniforms I'd have preferred the chinese ones
People showed individuality with their hair and bags, their pencil cases, what stationary they used etc
I know some people got into trouble for too much makeup or facial piercings
And while all the schools had a very thick dark navy coat with the school crest as part of the uniform most also let you wear other coats, especially in summer when the school ones were too hot
I like the comfy part, but they really DON’T need to be ugly in color IMO. We had some of the ugliest uniform with some of the most awkward color patterns back then and I hated it. The material was also weird. It stained easily and many marks were just impossible to wash off no matter how I tried.
The worst part? We were used to being ugly by the time we graduated. It’s one thing to know how to dress up but choose not to. It’s another thing to be completely clueless about how to make yourself look presentable.
I remember the day when we all went back to school to get the diploma. Technically the school has already ended, so it was the one day that we weren’t obligated to wear school uniforms. Many students (including me) were walking around in somehow even worse color combo than the school uniform simply because we didn’t know how to make ourselves look good.
It has done more damage than good IMO. Lots of Chinese people have no taste or bad taste until late into adulthood (some stuck with bad taste their entire life) except for a few talented unicorns or those who didn’t attend the “good schools” where ugly uniforms are obligatory.
And you still have people in power SA young girls anyway. It’s not like not sexualizing them through pretty clothes had changed anything at all.
Actually I would rather wear the Chinese school uniforms. Cuz it is a pain in the butt to dress up every day. Just put on a t-shirt, track suit and sweat pants and you are all done.
Haha I get what you mean
Millennial here, first day of primary school just before 2000, at that time the uniform for my public primary school in Beijing was similar to Japanese sailor suit, we had dark blue with white line highlights, for winter thicker zhongshanzhuang type jacket and pants.
When I came back to China in 03-04, the uniform then changed to those tracksuit styles. It was for sure more comfortable, last longer and more versatile.
why do i like the colors and design 😭😭
If your frame matched your jaw, you'd be a giga Chang.
lol, so true, I noticed his intense jawline as well :)
Why did you feel the need to add racism in your compliment? An Asian man can't just be called a giga Chad like anyone else?
@ Insert sense of humor and find joy in life
Good content, carry on :) I'd love to hear more about tension between Chinese & "western" values
Compare to our school uniform, china's school uniform looks better than our uniform. 😅
Oh no 😅 what kind of uniform did you guys have?
At 07:15, "China is the only country that I know that has a name for this (zao lian, early love)"-it's called puppy love.
In other countries they call it “puppy love”
Oh yes I've come across that term too! Is it widely used in the Western world?
Prison of war suits
I'm from the USA and my uniform was a collar shirts normally white but some schools use other colors and black or blue pants now a lot of school at lest where i from are trying to get rid of uniforms just want to share that
Oh interesting to know. I did the remainder of my highschool in Canada and the school I went to didn't have uniforms at all. They had hoodies and stuff that you could buy but they were more like merch lol
Hi from southern New Zealand 👋 theyre a hell of a lot better than what I had to wear to school in the north island 😬 everything was grey. When my parents moved to central Otago in southern New Zealand the uniform for Dunstan high was red😂 and grey😂😅 now that's horrible 😅
LOL that sounds rough 😅
And the real horror is the uniforms are STILL the same after 40 years😂 I looked them up😖 what does that say about New Zealand 😬😂 China's taste in high school uniforms is much better at least😂
with the exception of the ugly argument to discourage dating, the same arguments can be applied to all school uniforms in general. the ugly argument isnt even that convincing since korean and japanese students dont seem to engage in dating much either.
I'm from Russia and our typical school uniform across the country is dark blue office style clothing. There are stricter schools which only allow you to wear a dark blue trousers or a skirt (10 centimeters above the knee being the minimum length), a jacket or a vest and a shirt of pastel colors. There are also schools which allow their students to wear anything at least a bit office-styled. I was in a stricter school, but I liked the uniform, and I generally believe the uniform like that must be present because it hugely affects discipline and students don't really need to think what should they wear at mornings, haha😂
That's why I was a little dumbfounded when I found out what Chinese school uniform looked like. I didn't get why it was like this until I watched this video. And now that I know, I think it can work! Girls also don't need to worry about what they should wear and everyone is kinda the same, so there will be no insecurities about a certain uniform combination or a piece looking off on you...
I can understand why people don't like it too tho. We can't change it, so I think it's just good to know either way :)
Thank you for the video!
It's kinda like just a sports uniform, I guess. A bit uglier than my school uniform but not too far off (I'm from Australia at a school where we're allowed to wear our sports uniform everyday).
In india too we have tracksuits we have to wear it on Wednesday and Saturday, and our normal uniform, specially high school girls' dress were kinda or related traditional wear ( salwaar suit, mine was pants kurta and vest) A very questionable choice and even color scheme were weird but still comfortable and everyone can customize it to there body type and boys had shirt and pants, I lived in teir two city so, both Government and private school even some of colleges to had this type of dresses can't say about Mumbai, Delhi or big cities specially the private school but Government school has same dresses all over the country.
Chinese uniform looks better to me. Takes less time and gives more comfort.
Singaporeans, Thais and Malaysians school uniforms looks better than Chinese uniforms too. My school uniforms were full white from our shirts to our trousers and our shoes.
Modern China is founded on manufacturing industries. Imagine a bunch of factory workers apply their individual artistic taste on the assembly line, the quality control would be a nightmare.
As China moves forward, this cookie cutter style manufacturing would be relegated to robots. It would be interesting to see how the government would adapt.
pretty shure your pictures of korean school uniforms are more like uniform-inspired fashion or costumes and not real school uniforms
Still beats some (NOT ALL) of the questionable color scheme in some of the Philippines school uniforms.
Lol what do they look like?
why by what standard?????????????????
Personally I like them when I go back to china I’m a fan of tracksuits and anything good for running
Ya they were super movable. There was a photo that I cut out of the final version of the video where there's a track-and-field athlete in my school doing an event in the school uniform shorts (he didn't even think it was necessary to change out of it because it's already optimized for movement)
I was always very individualistic, yet I was the only one in school who only put off my uniform on the "free dress days" to put on a Halloween costume. When I dress, I tend to desire to make abstraction of the fact I have a body.
I am the type of person who would gladly put something like that to school.
Also...Trying to desexualize youths does not work. Teenagers are horny. Like, in XVIIIth and XIXth century France, women socializing was considered vulgar and sexy, and partially why Tea Parties never quite became a thing for French socialites.
dude not everyone wants to be leered at, just because your reference group did doesnt mean everyone else did
i taught at several wealthy private schools in China and they all had these cheap ugly tracksuits.
Haha I heard some of the fancy private schools in China had western school uniforms with blazers and stuff. Seems like not all of them do it though lol
@TheLouisZhao I worked at 4 different ones in 3 cities, and had friends at others and they all had track suits. There might be a British or Japanese school in China that does the uniform, but they are rare. I lived in China for 7 years and never even heard of such a thing.
Am i the only one prefer china version of uniform?
Haha not according to this comment section. Been seeing many people liking the Chinese school uniforms actually. Glad to see so much support for it around the world LOL
It's not ugly it's just typical standard jump suit type clothes
It's better imo. The oversexualization of the other uniforms is not good anyway, this is more modest. It's probably comfier for the kids as well.
Ya it's definitely very comfy (assuming the school/manufactures didn't cut corners with the materials). A lot of Chinese parents also prefer the current style of uniforms due to its modesty and de-sexualization like you mentioned. The sexualization of the other country's uniforms are more likely due to dramatized media representation though. In Japan for instance, the school uniforms are usually quite modest in practice.
Am I the only one who thinks that the Chinese school uniforms look like the uniforms from squid game? Given China's economic situation, I can see where the inspiration possibly comes from...
What a coincident that you also noticed that! I also went down this rabbit hole in my research. As far as I could dig up, the squid game tracksuits were likely inspired by Korea's gym uniform in the 70s/80s that the squid game directors used to wear at school (I suppose there are Korean schools that have a 'standard uniform' and a 'gym uniform' that students wear to gym class).
I also tried to find out if the Chinese school uniforms were inspired by the Korean gym school uniforms but could not find any conclusive evidence for that.
When comes to uniform, everyone in sea wanted china's
video about feeling sorry for yourself. just go against wearing uniforms if you're so against this kind of 'conformism'. 🙄
China is greatly diminishing it's soft power by reducing the sexiness of its youth. Attractive young people are a major form of soft power currency. South Korea is smarter, they allpw their youth to be fashionable and in turn trhat gives their culture greater social power on the world stage. The k-pop engine runs on hot young talented people and has massively increased korea's standing in the world. People are aware of korea largely because of their cultural media. China really looks like an empure about to collapse super fast from mismanagement. Not the civilization, but the economic entity, the nation-state of China, is screwed. The people are strong, the civilization will continue in a different form. All this oppression might leqad to a swing to the opposite and go individualistic in some group orgy of freedom. But there are so many deep collectivist cultural elements that will not be so easily defeated, so I doubt it will ever become quite as individualistic as the usa. Fun to see what happens in this era of rapid change everywhere. I hope that billions of people don't die in the process.
The thing is, they want to keep it to themselves.
I think Chinese don't want sexiness in their kids. Even though they know it can be monetized.
@@ihatecabbage7270 Seems counterproductive, reduce their power on the world stage and reduce birth rates, directly undermining their primary source of power, their numbers. India has passed them so it's dumb to do anything that reduces trheir population.
My first thought is freedom of movement. Gotta keep everyone ready to defend the empire. Those school uniforms would be bad for sending the kids out to war if enemies suddenly attacked. I'm so glad we didn't have to wear uniforms in school. We had gym shorts and shirt, but that was it, and they were just normal gym clothing and only worn in gym class. I didn't watch mine all year, became truly awful :)
If u think these are ugly, you should come to India. I'll gladly wear these uniforms over what we wear over here
The school uniform I had in the UK was a black blazer, trousers, jumper and a white shirt with a purple clip on tie. Problem was or massive con, in the summer, you would roast in the scorching heat and sweat buckets. 🪣 😅
Lol seems like it looks good but at the expense of comfort haha. Did they not have a summer version that is more breathable with less items?
@@TheLouisZhao Summer version when I was at school was only a short-sleeved shirt instead of long sleeved one. We were allowed to take off the blazer and/or jumper as well. But still full length polyester/wool trousers all year round.
Varies a bit from school to school.
I actually like it more than the uniforms in South Korea and Japan. The Chinese uniform doesn't promote any beauty centered mindset among girls and isn't sexualized like the Japanese school girl uniform.
Ya the Japanese school girl outfit can be quite sexualized in certain media representation, I think this is partly influenced by anime
Some people misunderstand, but most Japanese schools have strict rules on how to dress for school uniforms. For example, skirts are supposed to be knee-length, but many female students prefer to wear skirts that show too much leg because it is more fashionable. In other words, the school is not forcing the students to dress sexually, but they are breaking the rules and dressing sexually on their own. For example, in the northern part of Japan, where it snows a lot in winter and the temperature drops below freezing, it is recommended that students wear jerseys to school, but many girls wear skirts to school. Sexualized uniforms are often shown in the media, but most of the original Japanese uniforms are modest.