Protest movements routinely bring symbols that help define their cause. Umbrellas serving as shields against pepper spray came to symbolize demonstrations in Hong Kong in 2014 and again in 2019 as citizens protested anti-democratic measures pushed by Beijing.
Earlier this year in Iran, women cutting off their hair emerged as a signature gesture for protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman arrested by Iranian morality police for violating the country’s dress code for women.
Now in China, a simple blank sheet of paper has become the defining imagery for massive demonstrations against President Xi Jinping’s zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19.
