Life in uniform

"Looking back, my school uniform couldn't possibly be the real Puma, but it was so cool for us to wear 'branded clothes' at that time." Shen Xudong (right)

Happy in a crowd

The fabrics used for school uniforms in China have long been criticized, but "they make our uniforms particularly durable," says Shen Xudong, a 33-year-old Shanghai native. One of his friends from high school still wears his school uniform. "He wears the trousers to the court every time we play badminton. They last for more than a decade," says Shen. More importantly, they are branded Puma.

"Looking back, my school uniform couldn't possibly be the real Puma, but it was so cool for us to wear 'branded clothes' at that time," says Shen. When he was in high school, the gap between rich and poor was already obvious. Some students came to school wearing branded goods, while others could not. However on Mondays, they all wore school uniforms.

Shen had an argument about school uniforms with a friend from Thailand. In the Southeast Asian country, students are required to wear school uniforms from primary school to college. Now the Thais are debating whether wearing school uniforms should be mandatory.

A lot of Thai people approve of the standardization of clothing on campus and Shen agrees with them concerning primary and middle school students. "Adolescents are always competing with each other," says Shen. He says if everyone has to wear the same thing then economic inequality becomes invisible on campus, and therefore students can concentrate on their study. For college students, however, "they should be mature enough not to be affected by what other people wear".

Shen’s friend had a different opinion. "My Thai friend says that the gap between rich and poor exists in every country. Why hide it? Besides, seldom anyone in Thailand is so poor that they can't afford their own clothes. He also thinks regulating school uniforms represses individual development of personality," says Shen.