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Alice Yan

The colour that Chinese men dislike the most is perhaps green.
This aversion stems from centuries of tradition in Chinese history, where “wearing a green hat” signifies that a man’s wife has been unfaithful.
Around 2,000 years ago in ancient China, green was regarded as a lowly and degrading colour. It was referred to as a “mixed colour” because it is created by blending blue and yellow.
At that time, the general populace valued five “primary colours” – red, yellow, blue, white, and black – while looking down upon other colours, which they believed were inferior mixtures of these prime hues.

Consequently, emperors, ministers, and mid-level officials donned gowns in one of these esteemed colours, reserving green attire for low-grade officials.
Bai Juyi, a renowned poet of the Tang dynasty (618-907), lamented in his classic poem Ode to a Lady’s Pipa Play that his green gown was stained with tears, moved by the Pipa player’s enchanting performance. At that moment, Bai had been demoted to a junior position in Jiangxi province.
In ancient times, commoners were prohibited from wearing hats; they were only allowed to wear headscarves.
During the Tang dynasty, Li Feng, a county governor, invented a new form of punishment where subordinates who erred were forced to wear green headscarves as an insult. The severity of the offence determined how many days they would be required to wear them.
During the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), officials who surrendered to the Song emperors by betraying their regimes were made to wear green uniforms, symbolising society’s disdain for disloyalty.

Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) regulations mandated that men with relatives who worked as prostitutes must wear green headscarves.
This rule continued into the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), during which it became commonplace to verbally insult men whose wives were unfaithful by calling them “green headscarf,” or describing them as “wearing a green headscarf.”
In modern China, “wearing a green hat” denotes a person, especially a man, whose wife has committed adultery.
In addition to saying that someone is wearing a green hat, people might say “his wife gave him a green hat to wear” or “he has been made green.”

Recently, internet users have taken to joking: “There’s a grassland on his head.”
In 2021, images of mainland singer and actor Gu Jiacheng wearing a vibrant green baseball hat in an attempt to emulate foreign stars’ fashion circulated widely.
Consequently, many mainland Chinese internet users commented: “You are so brave to wear that!”
A Beijing-based influencer recounted on social media that her Austrian husband wore a green baseball hat while jogging in a park in China, only to elicit smiles from passers-by.


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People & Culture

In ancient China, green was considered a lowly, degrading colour, labelled a ‘mixed colour’ because it results from blending blue and yellow


In ancient China, green was considered a lowly, degrading colour, labelled a ‘mixed colour’ because it results from blending blue and yellow.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}In ancient China, green was considered a lowly, degrading colour, labelled a ‘mixed colour’ because it results from blending blue and yellow

In ancient China, green was considered a lowly, degrading colour, labelled a ‘mixed colour’ because it results from blending blue and yellow