So I see this picture of Obama and Hu (China’s president) at the state dinner last night. Obama is in a tux, Hu is in a business suit. Is this normal?
Could Hu have worn a tux if he wanted, or does protocol require him not to?
I wondered the same thing. I can’t find any pictures of him wearing anything other than a business suit or the occasional “Mao suit,” even at other black tie and even white tie events.
Evening dress is a symbol of the decadent capitalist aristocracy, don’tcha know.
Miss Manners had a funny column once about how the suits worn by Soviet leaders to events where other attendees were in formal dress were always described in Western media as “ill-fitting”. ('Course, maybe they were ill-fitting, at that.) Can’t seem to lay my hands on the column online, though.
Very interesting. I would have never guessed that, but it does make sense.
So they maintain the trappings of Maoism, even as they violate every tenet of the pseudo-theory.
As for protocols at state dinners, they seem to have all but disappeared, not only in dress but in the invitees, many of whom appear to be media gadflies that would have been swatted away in previous generations. So it goes.
Stranger
And Iranian hardliners won’t even wear ties. Not that I think President Ahmadinejad is going to have to worry about what to wear to a White House state dinner any time soon, of course.