The newspapers of Taiwan have recently been caught up in a rather heated discussion of the problem of students' hairstyles. The Ministry of Education has taken the first step in a decision to remove the biggest cause of enmity between school officials and students--the regulation of hairstyles. I am a liberalist, and I heartily approve of the lifting of these controls.

From the point of view of an anthropologist, the use of "short hair" regulations in attempting to manage the appearance and deportment of students is an incomprehensible action, because the matter of one's own hairstyle is an extremely sensitive problem. Allow me to explain for a moment just what I mean by sensitive.

Once I had an opportunity to speak with a group of middle-school military instructors, and I said, "You are all familiar with the Three Principles of the People and the history of the Nationalist revolution. How is it that you've forgotten those early years when the national martyrs opposing the Manchus would "keep their hair and lose their heads," preferring to give up their own heads rather than shave off their hair! As far as Chinese are concerned, the hair which we have inherited from our parents is just this sensitive; to the point that it becomes representative of the dignity of the people. Now educational administrators are using hair regulations to control students, giving rise to much unecessary friction.

Perhaps in the past most people's idea has been that if hair is short and neat it indicates obedience. Actually, if you want people to be obedient, there are certainly other ways of attaining your ends. What I mean to say is, as regards the dress, hairstyle, and behavior of youths, it's best not to establish merely surface-oriented controls; we should rather concern ourselves with more inner-directed guidance and appraisal.

In the rapidly changing industrial society of today, where values are constantly changing, youths are especially ready and willing to accept all kinds of fresh things and events. With the addition of the all-pervasive modern mass media, it is only natural that young people should have concepts and ways of doing things which are different from those of their elders in the preceding generation. Furthermore, the disposition of youth has always been lively, curious, and contrary. Therefore, their thought and action produces remarkable, unprecedented, originally unique phenomena. These may all be explained as manifestations of protest against and criticism of de facto institutions and values, coming from the "subculture" of youth.

The most distinctive characteristic of the subculture of youth is its opposition to formalism. Whether in their conduct or costume, everywhere these young people reveal an attitude unrestricted by formality, a disposition which does not adhere to convention. They favor simplicity and directness; their language and dealings with others are without excessive ceremony. Because of their pursuit of new things and new undertakings, and their inclination for remarkable appearances, it is inevitable that they often appear quite like frontier trail-blazers.

At the sight of these words, "frontier trail-blazers," we might be tempted to associate these youths with the Western hippies of the 1960's and the punks of the 80's. In most people's eyes their strangely different clothing was the utmost in fancifulness. But, if you think again, if the people from the times of the founding of our republic were to see the forms on our television sets, I think the shock of their reaction would not be much different from the way we see the punks.

Therefore, as I see it, as long as there is no actual interference with societal order, there would be no harm in our looking to these youths as leaders at the front lines of modern times. Clothes are after all merely a medium; people use their forms as a means of showing their inner feelings. Regardless of the turns in style that their clothes take, the important thing is that from these styles we may grasp an understanding of the inner attitudes of our youths.

Every society has its "code" of what is generally considered to be proper conduct; the punks simply exchanged that of the mainstream society for one that could be counted as the code of their own circle. In the same way, every action of our youths stems from their particular code. We should make use of these outward expressions of their code in understanding what is going on in their minds.

In short, my own final thoughts on the outward conduct of youths are this: don't be afraid of their opposition or originality, and don't expect their actions to be modelled completely on those of the previous generation. Especially considering the rapid pace of change in today's society, there is simply no way that they are going to be the same as their predecessors. Give them credit for their thoughts and actions; don't let yourself suppose that their new modes of conduct are simply lamentable degenerations. The real cause for lament would be if they did nothing but imitate, without a thought for innovation. When our children oppose us, it's nothing strange; the real cause for worry is if even these external forms of opposition become simply imitations of others--that's where adults should truly start to be concerned.

Starting Point--The Deregulation of Students' Hairstyles.