Female officials in China are no longer satisfied with their old-fashioned images.

More than 80 minister-level female officials attended a lecture on proper dressing Wednesday, the Beijing News reported.

The lecturer, well-known image consultant Yu Ximan, told the officials that more than half of them did not dress according to their ages, shapes, and skin colors, though she gave a high mark to the dress of Ms. Gu Xiulian, president of the All-China Women's Federation.

Many officials said they were too busy to care about their images, and more importantly they were afraid of over-dressing.

"We want to be beautiful as everybody does, but we dare not dress up because of Chinese traditional mentality," said Qiu Yuanping, a senior official with the foreign affair's office.

As public figures, female officials had to consider the tastes of different people.

"Usually they are accustomed to wearing old-fashioned clothes, to appeal the elderly and middle-aged people," said Qiu.

But Qiu said she was not clear what the ideal image was for female politicians in the minds of the Chinese people.

Liu Haitang, former vice president of the All-China Women's Federation, said female officials of the federation should set an example for all Chinese women to dress properly.

(Shenzhen Daily July 2, 2004)