Elite Beijing 101 High School Holds Coming-of-Age Ceremony

Recently, Beijing 101 High School held a coming-of-age ceremony for students at the Old Summer Palace made famous by its destruction during the Second Opium War. Beijing 101 Middle School is an elite school attended by many children of government officials and military leaders. It is also notable as the alma mater of current Chinese president Xi Jinping.

The traditional Chinese coming-of-age ceremony is similar to what is practiced in Korea and Japan, where young men and women entering adulthood will don traditional costumes to signify becoming responsible members of society. However, much to the disgust of netizens, most of the school’s girls pictured wore skimpy outfits and high heels. Many netizens commented that such display is not fitting for an event dedicated to maturity and adulthood.

Comments from Sina Weibo:

@蜜思沉：

Why are they dressed like prostitutes?

@大哥_别打脸：

Their sugar daddies are smiling.

@光头的逆袭：

Coming-of-age ceremony? They become adults by dressing up like hookers? Adulthood is mental maturity, about handling things calmly, and not about wearing high heels coming out to sell flesh.

@oliviamz：

Where is the Hanfu? Japan has its kimono and Korea has its Hanbok, all traditional ethnic clothing, so shouldn’t Han people wear Hanfu to be dignified? Look at the nonsense they are wearing! Ridiculous! Without proper ceremony, without traditional dress/clothes, this so-called coming-of-age ceremony is just an empty one, and they will only make themselves laughing stocks.

@W-眉如黛：

Adults are to carry responsibility in society so what social role are they planning to have in society dressed like this>

@赤备突袭：

After the the coming-of-age ceremony ends, they can go check-in at the nightclubs and hotels.

@Joker德：

Shut your filthy mouths. 101 High School is a prestigious school, whose students all excel in their studies, and not only are they from Beijing but from all over the country. A significant number of the students in the school are children of high-level officials, [business/company] executives, and the wealthy. President Xi also graduated from here. You say these students dress up like prostitutes? Are you qualified to say that? May I ask, are your kids better than them???

@岩啸：

At the Old Summer Palace dressed like they came out of Tiny Times, so what does this say?

@piyoopiyoo：

The boys look like insurance salesmen, and the girls look like they work in the nightclubs…

@我是吴咔咔：

In Japan, they would wear kimonos…

@差价游戏：

All kinds of high-end pussy.

@LP-SV：

They’ve probably forgotten the history of how the Old Summer Palace was burned down.

@亚平宁的挚爱：

Japanese people would not dress like this at the Hiroshima memorial, and American students would not dress like this at the Pearl Harbor memorial, so this is a problem of education. Some students think dressing like this makes them fashionable and trendy, but they’re gravely mistaken. On one hand they want to copy laowai, but on the other they can’t even diligently think about the true meaning/significance of a coming-to-age ceremony. Foreigners dress according to occasion, they don’t wear an evening dress all day from morning to night.