China's Fear of the Bikini

For the judges, muscle definition and mass symmetry were everything. But for most of the 5,000 Chinese spectators who jammed the sports coliseum in Shenzhen recently to see 46 female body builders compete, the appeal was far simpler: the ever so brief costumes that showed off more of the feminine form than the Chinese have ever before seen in public.

The bikini has arrived in the People's Republic. After a year of competing in demure, one-piece suits, the country's female body builders are creating a sensation with their new sports uniforms. The first blow for navel liberation was struck in September by four competitors at a provincial contest. "A sudden hail of deafening screams and whistles broke out," reported the biweekly Shenzhen Youth Herald. "The four girls trembled at the center of the stage and slowly lowered their heads." When the hall finally quieted and the athletes raised their heads to strike their poses, the 500 spectators went wild.

As bikinis kept popping up, traditionalists denounced the trend as an "unhealthy wind." But puritanical worries quickly gave way to more practical considerations. Bluntly put, if Chinese women hoped to compete internationally, they would have to show a little more flesh. Peking finally came around and ruled that bikinis could be worn at the Shenzhen contest. The Chinese press soberly hailed the itsy, bitsy swatches as a "great challenge to the traditional concepts and remnants of feudal ideology." An appreciative whistle might have made the point just as nicely.