The Hong Kong Post has announced an unexpected change to one of its new stamp designs — set to be released next April — after the original presumably proved a little too, well, protest-y given the events of the last few months.
The stamp in question features a group of children dancing around on the board of the game Go — often referred to as 象棋 (zheung kei), or “elephant chess” in Cantonese, or even simply as “Chinese chess” — a complex strategy game in which players (represented by black and white stones) seek to “capture” their opponent’s pieces by surrounding them on the board.
The original design of the stamp featured a child in white holding out a white stone, as children dressed in black — the signature color of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters — danced around him in a circle in an apparent visual nod to the colors of the game itself. However, in the new design, announced on Saturday, the child in the center is given a pair of yellow shorts and socks, while the other children are now dressed in muted earth tones.
The HK$5 stamp is one of a series of six centered on the theme of “childhood leisure,” with original design announced back in October.
The Hong Kong Post told Sing Tao Daily that the artwork published in October was merely for reference, and insisted that the modifications were purely for aesthetic reasons, and intended to reflect a “livelier image” of the children.
Netizens, however, were unconvinced, with many saying the move was likely intended to avoid an uncomfortable resemblance between the smiling black-clad children (who, in the game depicted, appear to be winning) and the city’s hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters.
“Black clad protesters dressed up as regular citizens,” one commenter wryly said of the abrupt wardrobe change, apparently alluding to protesters’ practice of swapping out their black duds to avoid identification.
“Will elephant chess also be banned in the future?” asked another.
The designer of the new stamp series, Ng Kwai Shing, told HK01 that the design of the stamp was meant to show how skills honed on the Go board — like focus, quick-wits, and an ability to deal with change and adversity — helped children to cope with adversity in real life.
Read more Hong Kong coverage at Coconuts HK.
Reader Interactions