Facial recognition shaming cameras – but the masks!
Now Chinese City Uses Facial Recognition to Shame Pajama Wearers AI-powered CCTV cameras
“While this can seem like just a cute story, it actually lays bare some of the most profound risks to human rights posed by facial recognition technology. It should be a wake up call to reexamine and debate whether we want to live in societies armed with this sort of powerful surveillance capabilities on every corner.”
Folklore: Pajama wearing is a longtime Chinese Custom.
Think cultural revolution and starving to death. Mao was the biggest mass murderer in the world, he killed more people than anyone else on earth.
Remember when you were told to eat everything on your plate because they are starving in China?
This story begins with poverty.
You are so poor you can only afford 1 of anything that you wear. You have to wear it day in and day out, you have to sleep in it. You cannot afford to buy anything. You are just staying alive.
Then one day you have enough money for food and somewhere to sleep and can save up to buy material. You now buy the cloth and the padding for warmth. You sew your own.
A citizen that had another set of clothes to sleep in was proud. This pajama when worn on the street was a display of wealth, a status symbol. The wearer was wealthy enough to have a second set of clothes.
1/22/2020 Chinese city uses surveillance tech to shame citizens for wearing pajamas outside Here’s what happens when cutting edge technology is used to discourage “uncivilized behavior.” This practice has come under scrutiny in the Chinese city of Suzhou. Leaving the house in your pajamas to get groceries. We’ve all done it. But it’s uncivilized behavior, according to bureaucrats in the Chinese city of Suzhou. To shame its citizens out of such barbarity ….
https://www.cnet.com/news/chinese-city-uses-surveillance-tech-to-shame-citizens-for-wearing-pajamas-outside/
In 2009
The “civilized dress persuasion team”
Su Meizhi (苏美芝) is one of the members of the “civilized dress persuasion team”. She is in charge of the women and family planning (China’s policy of only one child per family) in the neighborhood committee. Prior to engaging in the persuasion work, Su Meizhi said she herself had the habit of wearing pajamas going outside. But after persuasion team training, she paid more attention to her dress code, also persuaded her family not to wear pajamas going outside.
Public Pajamas Persist in Shanghai
Government memo to pajama-wearing Shanghainese, whether shopping, gossiping, playing mahjong or walking dogs in their sleepwear: Get dressed.
Shanghai itself has been getting new coats of paint in the run-up to the 2010 World Expo, but the locals’ deep-seated penchant for wearing pajamas is still a nagging worry for officials eager to present a sophisticated metropolis to millions of Expo visitors.
The Shanghai government in July established a team of 500 volunteers to use persuasion at such venues as bus stops to get residents looking “uncivilized” to change their clothes.
The campaign, under the slogan, “No Pajamas in Public — Be Civilized for the Expo,” is similar to Beijing’s distribution of several million etiquette books ahead of last year’s Olympics.
It is also not the first time the Shanghai government attacks the pajama issue. Previous, fruitless attempts have mostly served to show that pajamas have become a deeply rooted part of nongtang, or old neighborhood, culture in Shanghai.
“Shanghainese have a delicate lifestyle that includes changing to pajamas once they get home. In other cities, they don’t think it is necessary to do that.” says Yu Hai, a sociology professor at Fudan University. “When cooking and suddenly realizing more spring onions are needed for dinner, they just hurry to the nearby market.”
One Web site conducted a survey in mid-July on the subject, “Shanghainese like to wear night-gown outdoors; what’s your opinion?” Of the 5,794 respondents, 42% thought the practice was “uncivilized,” while 34% called it“convenient”and the remaining 24% said it was “normal.” One pajama proponent argued, “I support the residents’ freedom to wear whatever they like … It is such an absurd requirement. How can the government interfere with my clothes?,” while from the “against” camp, one person wrote, “No pajama in public is basic etiquette for a cosmopolitan city like Shanghai.” (the posts in the forum )
“At the beginning, people in pajamas didn’t understand our meddling with their business.” says Chen Zhuoya, who is in charge of the propaganda team. But she said that after three months of the campaign, “We do see fewer and fewer people going out in pajamas.”
In the eyes of Fudan University’s Mr. Yu, foreign visitors to the Expo will accept the pajama fashion with tolerance and appreciation: “Why not? It is Shanghai!”
— Bai Lin
https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2009/10/29/public-pajamas-persist-in-shanghai/
Shanghai Government requests Residents to not wear Pajamas in public 11/31/09
http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/31/shanghai-government-requests-residents-not-wearing-pajamas-in-public/
“Not going outside wearing pajamas”. This is Shanghai city government’s request for the residents of the city prior to the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. However this provoked widespread controversy. On one hand, wearing pajamas does not conform to international etiquette, but there are voices also advocating that if the government makes a rule restricting wearing pajamas, then society loses some of its freedom.
Since late July, committee head Shen Guofang’s (沈国芳) had one more thing on his work list: to persuade the community residents not to wear pajamas when they go outside.
Shen is the “Alley President” of Shanghai Pudong New Area Changlidong road Qiba residential community. At this stage, his work is divided into two parts, one is managing residential district daily affairs, and the second is “Welcoming the World Expo”. The activity of “Not going outside wearing pajamas, become a World Expo civilized person” is one of the elements in the second part.
Everyone has been to Shanghai knows that people of Shanghai have the habit of wearing pajamas in public. They can be seen in the alleys, farmers markets, supermarkets, streets even the famous shopping street Nanjing road. Lady wearing patterned pajamas, and a pair of fairly sophisticated leather shoes, goes to buy a pack of slat in the alley, or with her hair full of pin curls taking out the trash. This is seen as a typical picture of Shanghai culture. However, when the bulldozers run over every alley, people still remember the old way of life, but the remaining pajamas habit suddenly becomes an enemy of “the civilized”.
The upcoming 2010 Shanghai World Expo, an event that represents modern civilization can no longer tolerate the ordinary people’s “bad habits”. Only two or three stops away from the World Expo site, Qiba residential community along with all the Expo areas in Pudong, will be sized up using standards of “modern civility ”.
Shanghai residents must survive the stares of international eyes, “This is an issue of our country’s face.” Shen Guofang said.