Modern China can be described as a country rushing headlong into the future while keeping one foot in the past. Sometimes, though, this makes for an uneasy alliance.

Netizens are furious after pictures of a private fashion show in Fujian appeared online that showed models clad in bikinis and swimwear while wearing traditional stage headdresses from the local Fujian Chinese opera.

Linzi, an organizer of the show, explained they wanted to create something fresh, so they combined swimwear with traditional opera headdresses as something ”old and new”. Linzi said the performance was just a one-time small-scale fashion show, and she said she’s sorry if any netizens had their feelings hurt.

The response to the photos has been overwhelmingly negative, calling the fashion show “blasphemous” and “a violation of China’s innocence”.

Here are some netizen comments over the controversy:

钟泳林：
Are they all prostitutes?

JCheng1012：
They should wear the dudou (an undergarment that covers the chest and abdomen). That way it’s sexier.

Chok蓝人：
Historic traditions are for remembering, not to be remade! Don’t destroy several thousand years of Chinese history!

硬虎无变鹿：
In order to made the anhiliation (of history) all the more thorough, is this some kind of draft (to work in) Dongguan?

请叫我fan_Fundy：
This is a violation of our country’s innocence

肖哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈：
So hard on the eyes! Nothing good will come of this!

Cacuts_s：
Nothing wrong here

叫我健叔叔_Ken：
The design composition of those pieces of cloth is not enough, I feel as though the top and bottom are not coordinated. The headpieces are too solemn and grandiose, while the clothing is too spartan.

周游You-Chow：
Do you fucking take this to be a Category III film? Businessmen will do unscrupulous things for money; before long, the several thousand years of culture left to us by our ancestors will be completely destroyed by this scum.

明翔熙：
What a tragedy… people from generations past are more innocent. It never would have occurred to me that people of this generation would destroy the image of our country’s innocence.

-溧歆：
Very ugly, including the faces. [happy.emo]

summer馮馮：
It has lost the feeling of beauty.

猴年马月的牛头马面：
I feel as if I’m watching the Golden Lotus (a notorious Ming Dynasty known for its sexual content), but is an updated modern version!

Rowckee：
I’d say I can accept this because this involves cultural content, and so will multiply without end.

Helyn_Lam：
A day without selling meat spells the end of your days.

Here are more photos from the fashion show:

Related:

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• Bikini-clad Shenzhen girls call for “rational” protest against the Japanese
• Dongguan Plumber Proposes to Girlfriend in Bra and Panties

Photos: Guangzhou Daily