Pyjamas, nylon stockings, and other Olympic dreams.

Photography by Elaine W. Ho. While strolling through the streets of Xiamen in the summer of 1992, I came across many young women wearing short nylon stockings. I remember, with shame, I must confess now, how I would make fun of them with my friends. Taking Dutch standards as the yardstick of good taste, I considered nylon stockings to be part of one’s underwear, whose fringes, indeed the boundaries between the clothed and naked body, were not to be revealed in public. Similar smiles appeared ...