L24:Does Fashion Contribute Anything to Society?

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Make np, Dress up, Warm up, Brighten'up

When 43-year-old Wang I.ongzhu stepped out of a beauty parlour in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province in East China, she felt all the people around were staring at her with admiration.
She said, "Years ago, it would be unusual for a middleaged woman like me to make up because Chinese women who have married and raised children usually do not care much about their appearance.
"When I came home and looked in the mirror, I found myself younger and I felt relaxed and confident," she added.

Wang, an official of a pharmaceutical factory in Nanjing, believes a good appearance may leave people with a better impression in social contacts. She goes to the Nanjing Dongfang beauty parlour centre to have face massotherapy once a week.
Founded three months ago, the centre has helped more than 100 middie-aged and older people to improve their appearance.
Zhang Yahui, director of the centre, said,  "Everyone gets old. But we can keep our youthful appearance longer through daily care."
Middle-aged and older people in China are now breaking with the conventional idea and paying more attention to keeping fit and caring about their appearance.

According to a shop assistant of the Taiping Department Store, who looks after a counter selling clothes specially for rniddle-aged and older people, more and more of her senior customers like to buy fashionable and bright-coloured clothes. The dark and grey uniforms which used to be popular among old people are now unsellable.
He Minsheng, director of a city committee looking after affairs concerning the aged, said that when people are getting old, they often begin to feel useless and lose interest in life. The purpose of the committee is to help them overcome these iroubles.

He said the city has set up more than 400 recreational and sports organizations to promote various activities for older people.
Early in the morning, old people can be found performing disco, qigong(a system of deep breathing exercises) and other exercises in gardens and parks.
However, not all middle-aged and older people in China openly express their views about their wish to remain in good physical condition.
A reporter from a local weekly aimed at senior citizens complained that about 1, 000 people signed for a recent healthcare exercise training course, but few of them are willing to be interviewed. The reporter said, "Maybe these people are still afraid of being laughed at.

II. Read
Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

1. "New Fashions in Clothing Are Created Solely for the
Commercial Exploitation of Women

Whenever you see an old film, even one made as little as ten years ago, you cannot help being struck by the appearance of the women taking part. Their hair- styles and make-up look dated: their skirts look either too long or too short: their general appearance is, in fact, slightly ludicrous. The men taking part in the film, on the other hand, are clearly recognizable. There is nothing about their appearance to suggest that they belong to an entirely different age.

This illusion is created by changing fashions. Over the years, the great majority of men have successfully resisted all attempts to make them change their style of dress. The same cannot be said for women. Each year a few so-ca lled "top designers" in Paris or London lay down the law and women the whole world over rush to obey. The decrees of the designers are unpredictable and dictatorial. This year, they decide in their arbitrary fashion, skirts will be short and waists will be high; zips are in and buttons are out . Next year the law is reversed and far from taking exception, no one is even mildly surprised.