I know someone that moved to Austin from Beijing.
A Mother and her daughter. I ask them if it's alright for American adult tourist to wear shorts in Beijing. She said OF COURSE! Beijing is very free about how people dress. Only in temples you cover your knees. Sam wore such cute outfits, and it was perfectly okay to wear them.
I just wonder if the people that complained on this forum about Sam's clothes have even been to China, and if they are Chinese. These people I know that answered my question, know Beijing very, very well, and lived there. They should know. So, lets not have anymore complaints about how Sam dressed in China. She was right in with the locals!!

Awesome story. Glad you took the opportunity to ask a person who was actually from China/Beijing this question. Smart thinking! Glad to know my Sam didn't commit a fashion faux pas!

Misty

I wondered that myself. In most eps of her shows, she usually dresses in shorts & tank tops. Some cultures, especially Asian, would find this shocking. (In an MTV program, a group of young people visited Morrocco & one of them dressed like that. Some of the locals actually threw stones at her.) Fortunately, Sam has a production crew to research these things before getting to their destination.

I also used to live in China and littlepinetree's friends are correct. Shorts and tank tops are worn by most girls in the summer, when it can get pretty hot. In fact, for awhile the fashion was those short, short denim shorts worn with a tank top and sandals.

polydemic, can you fill us in on which East or SE Asian cultures would have a problem with shorts and tank tops? I've lived or visited China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, HK and Singapore and they were fine in all of those locations.

It's also not unusual for some Chinese to walk on the street near their homes in the summer while wearing pajamas.
(Steve from San Diego)