Figure 1.-- Here we have a color family portrait. It is not dated, but we would guess was taken in the 1980s, probanly the early-80s. Coloe photography was rare in China at the time. Most color uimages come from foreign visitors. China began to open up to Wesrern visitors. This was when the impact of the marker reforms (i.e. capitalism) began to impact Chinese society. And we can see it in the portrait here, although you have to look closely. The man wears a unifirm, problasvly that of the People's Lineration Army (PLA), although there are other unifornmed groups. Notice the jacket is green, but the pants are blue. PLA soldiers mostly wore all-green unifiorms. More interesting is the beginninf of Western fashion in Communist Chinma. Now the mother and children may not look all that fashionable, but look at her pants--blue jeans. Nothing can be more indicative of Western fashions than American blue jeans.

Here we have a color family portrait. It is not dated, but we would guess was taken in the 1980s, probanly the early-80s. Color photography was rare in China at the time. Most color uimages come from foreign visitors. China began to open up to Western visitors. This was when the impact of the marker reforms (i.e. capitalism) began to impact Chinese society. And we can see it in the portrait here, although you have to look closely. The man wears a unifirm, problasvly that of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), although there are other uniformed groups. Notice the jacket is green, but the pants are blue. PLA soldiers mostly wore all-green unifiorms, but we do see some blue pants. We are not sure just who wore the blue pants, but this means that the man here was not out of uniform. More interesting is the beginning of Western fashion in Communist China. Now the mother and children may not look all that fashionable, but look at her pants--blue jeans. Nothing can be more indicative of Western fashions than American blue jeans. You do not sse Red Guards running around with blue jeans. They were the heighth of fashion behind the Soviet Iron Curtain during the Cold War and the same was true after the market reforms began and China began to open up to the West. It was no longer dangerous to be fashionable. Another fasionable indicator is the color. Color was now allowed. Also fashionable are the two children. China during the 70s introduced the two child family to limit the country's population growth. Then the limit was set at one child (1980). The fact that the couple here has two children may help date the photograph to the early-80s, perhaps even the late-70s. The limits were very effective. The Goverment ended the one child policy (2015) because it not created a demographic cliff that is now beginning to impact the economy with fewer workers and increasing number of retirees. It also caused a gender inbalance. here are farmor men than women in China today bcause Chinese family prerfered boys to girls. The Government reversed course and is now encouring the population to have more children, a little too late. And so far it is not affecting the low birth rate.

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Created: 6:34 PM 3/28/2023
Last updated: 6:34 PM 3/28/2023