Opinion | Now that black is out, what to wear in Hong Kong – the many shades of political loyalties

Colours have meaning, with police detaining black-clad citizens and pure white taking on impure implications in the city

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Protesters stage a sit-in on August 21 wearing their trademark all-black outfits. Photo: Winson Wong

Sofia Suarez

Published: 11:45am, 28 Aug 2019Updated: 11:47am, 28 Aug 2019

I have worn mostly black for decades. I like to think it’s slimming. (Please don’t burst my bubble.) It presents the appearance of someone who has her act together. (I don’t.) It’s also easy (read: lazy) and hides stains. Recent events in Hong Kong, however, have made me question my fashion choices.

Heading to a store for the mundane task of buying an iron, a friend said, “Well, you’d better change.” It took me a second to realise she wasn’t criticising my outfit. Police and others had been targeting people wearing black, sometimes mistaking black-clad Hongkongers for protesters.

I looked down at my clothes. All black. Although I have opinions, I did not intend to make a statement at an appliance shop. I immediately settled on a summer favourite, white, but my friend paled at the suggestion. Ah, yes. White has been the colour worn by violent anti-protest attackers. Picturing my wardrobe, I remembered a cute red dress I’d pushed past just that morning. I didn’t need to propose that out loud before I realised it wouldn’t conjure neutral associations, either. In the end, I dug out an old blue dress – yes, it is another colour associated with Hong Kong’s pro-government movement, but I was running out of clothes.

Colour has signified political affiliations throughout history. White, a symbol of purity and virtue in Western civilisation, was adopted by the Suffragettes of the early 1900s, and again in 2019 by United States congresswomen such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. On the US presidential campaign trail in 2016, Hillary Clinton capitalised on the symbolism of white. Unfortunately, the pipe-wielding aggressors in Hong Kong were not showing their commitment to women’s rights. In Chinese culture, white is the colour of mourning.

Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in white, the colour of suffrage, casting her vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, in Washington, in January. Photo: EPA

Pink is another colour adopted by women’s causes, from pink ribbons for breast cancer awareness to the pink Pussyhats of the Women’s Marches in 2017. Tragically, Nazi Germany targeted homosexuals by making them wear pink triangles. Today, we celebrate the LGBT community with all the colours of the rainbow.