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ONE of the biggest mysteries in every city I've been to in China has been that single pair of red panties hanging in the window or on the balcony. In some homes they seem to be permanent fixtures.
It's something people don't talk about, or if they do it's never with a straight answer. Straight answers go against the cultural grain, I know, but this goes to the extreme. Or maybe they just won't tell ME.
Right now I am looking out the window at a relatively new garden apartment complex across the street. On the top floor of one is this elephant-size pair of red underwear draped across the window like a flag. Five floors below, in the bottom corner of the balcony waves a single red pair in the breeze. It's been there for weeks.
The people on the fourth floor in the next building over have their laundry hanging from a long pole outside the window. But apart from it and about an arm's length above is a single pair of red undies attached to the burglar bars.
Without binoculars, I can see one other place with nothing hanging outside but a single pair of red undies.
On Chinese New Year and other special occasions, red briefs (worn under your clothes) signify good fortune and wealth. So wouldn't it be better to wear them – except for the humongous pair – instead of hanging them in the window?
Finally, I found an explanation in a back issue of China Daily. The story was about two families living near Guangzhou who were outdoing each other by hanging up mirrors and red panties to "deflect evil emanating from others' homes."
Using the Taoist charms, both were targeting the family in the opposite building, which started the whole drama by hanging a mirror on top of the balcony, the newspaper reported in an article titled "Raise the red panties."
I just looked to my right. The sixth-floor apartment in the building next to mine displays a single pair of red panties almost directly toward the red panties across the street. No, actually that building is angled toward mine.
Gee, my shaving mirror is in the window because the light is better there.
Oh, oh … I don't have any red underwear. I wonder if these red plastic bags will do.
