Wearing a Skull Ring in China

[oof]

This feels like a dumb question, but I couldn't really find any information online about it. Although both my parents are Chinese, I grew up in America - please forgive my ignorance of Chinese culture. 

 

I'll be touring a couple cities in the near future. Since the last time I was in China, I began wearing silver rings; in particular, I have a horned skull ring that I really like wearing. The "censoring" of skeletons in video games and general taboo around symbols of death made me curious if these rules extended to fashion as well. Additionally, after browsing some Chinese streetwear/fashion, I noticed that little to no men wore rings (n<30 though, very small sample size). I don't mind being judged, but will wearing my rings draw any unwanted trouble?

 

Thank you!

[Lu]

I'm pretty confident that you won't get into any kind of official trouble. I don't know if the censorship rules extend to fashion, but if they do, they would be aimed mainly at shops that sell skull jewerly, public servants wearing them, pop stars and other such public figures wearing them, and people who are already troublesome wearing them. If you're simply going to be a tourist, you'll be fine. But perhaps don't wear that ring if you're visiting (older) relatives and/or important people.

 

Can't really comment on men wearing rings. I remember having a discussion about this with two Taiwanese guys (one ring-wearing, one not), concluding that it is more common in Taiwan than in the West, but that was in 2007 (and in Taiwan).

[Tomsima]

Loads of 土豪 guys walking round with big gold rings where I am, also regularly seeing people walking round wearing tshirts that read things like 'SEX MACHINE' written in big bold letters on the front makes me think you'll probably be fine

[js6426]

I have seen them selling these kind of rings, along with various other types of jewelry, along a few different streets.  Not all places frequented by foreigners either.  I haven't seen all that many people wearing them, but I can't imagine they are particularly frowned upon by young people here.  I see a LOT of people (especially girls) walking around with tattoos on their hands, which must be less culturally ok than a skull ring, so if the former is this common I wouldn't worry about the latter.

[DavyJonesLocker]

Wouldn't even give it a 2nd thought. Given half of the young girls in Beijing were  wearing far too short skirts and  hot pants today the era of conservatism is vanishing fast in the big cities anyway in China. As above tattos have become very popular here especially amongst women. 

[oof]

Thank you all for your input! I appreciate it a lot.

[Junkins]

That was actually an excellent question, Oof. I know exposing bones in video games is a big no-no in China. World of Warcraft was an example of this. They had to re-do their character model to cover up the bones of a particular race of characters called Undead.