A major Beijing newspaper has begun running "topless" photographs - to encourage their subjects to put their clothes back on.

The pictures are part of a media campaign in the capital to end the age-old "uncivilized habit" of men going bare-chested in summer - a problem many people believe to be a national embarrassment, Xinhua news agency reported.

The campaign is unfolding in the city under a precondition of non-infringement upon personal privacy, Xinhua said.

Over the last two weeks the Beijing Youth Daily has carried 20 photographs of "topless" men, most taken by readers responding to the campaign.

The purpose of publishing the pictures is to make the men, nicknamed "bare-chested masters" by Beijingers, feel ashamed of themselves and put their clothes back on, according to the newspaper.

In the past, poor Chinese men traditionally went bare-chested in summer because it was their only way to keep cool and many could not afford decent clothes, said Xinhua.

However, with the rapid economic development and the vast improvement of people's living standard, advent of electric fans and air conditioners, the practice has been rendered socially unacceptable.

Cao Sui, a professor from the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, stressed the importance of image-building for Beijingers as the city prepared to host the 2008 Olympic Games.

The newspaper's editors said that all the published photos had either focused on the person's back or received special treatment in order to protect the privacy of the subjects.

( eastday.com July 10, 2002)