Cheerleaders seen performing during various events at the ongoing Beijing Olympics.
"All of us in China have paid a lot to stage these Olympics and tanning my skin brown is part of that effort," said Wang Hui, one of five Chinese women chosen to dance with veteran Spanish cheerleaders at Beijing's 12,200-seat Chaoyang Park stadium. (Click to enlarge images)
"All of us in China have paid a lot to stage these Olympics and tanning my skin brown is part of that effort," said Wang Hui, one of five Chinese women chosen to dance with veteran Spanish cheerleaders at Beijing's 12,200-seat Chaoyang Park stadium. (Click to enlarge images)
Wang and fellow cheerleader Chen Jin shrug off the notion that Chinese of today would be offended by their steamy show, beamed across China and around the world.
"I don't think Chinese audiences are that conservative anymore and their thinking about this kind of thing is already rather liberated," said Chen, a 24-year-old dance teacher from far western Xinjiang province. "It's quite normal to go to the beach and see most young women dressed this way."
Cosmopolitan China magazines fashion editor Xue Tie'na said that her magazine has staged contests in recent years to promote the bikini as a way to "enhance women's individualism and confidence." The campaign appears to be bearing fruit, she suggested.
"The Chinese cheerleaders are all beautiful girls wearing fashionable bikinis and this is probably the first time they've appeared in public in such highly revealing clothes," Xue said.
"We used to watch bikini scenes in foreign movies ... now I can see that (our women) are very open and fashionable."
"I don't think Chinese audiences are that conservative anymore and their thinking about this kind of thing is already rather liberated," said Chen, a 24-year-old dance teacher from far western Xinjiang province. "It's quite normal to go to the beach and see most young women dressed this way."
Cosmopolitan China magazines fashion editor Xue Tie'na said that her magazine has staged contests in recent years to promote the bikini as a way to "enhance women's individualism and confidence." The campaign appears to be bearing fruit, she suggested.
"The Chinese cheerleaders are all beautiful girls wearing fashionable bikinis and this is probably the first time they've appeared in public in such highly revealing clothes," Xue said.
"We used to watch bikini scenes in foreign movies ... now I can see that (our women) are very open and fashionable."