Paper Bags, Clothes And Hats Used To Defy Mask Ban

Hong Kong's anti-government protesters on Sunday found a new way to show off their creative skills as they donned all manner of items to demonstrate to the world how they are determined to ignore a new ban on covering their faces.

There were Winnie the Pooh masks to mock President Xi Jinping, and hats and visors more often associated with the city's "aunties" to be found among those joining unauthorised marches through both Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

A woman was walking along the streets of Causeway Bay with her entire face covered by a large yellow hat, and it wasn't quite clear how she could see where she was going.

Others wrapped all sorts of clothing around their heads, from t-shirts to underwear, to obscure everything but their eyes, while it was sometimes hard to hazard a guess at what some people had on them.

One man was peering out of a paper bag, holding up a sign telling Chief Executive Carrie Lam that he had no intention of heeding her call to disassociate himself from protesters using violence.

An office worker surnamed Chan had made herself a Winnie the Pooh mask with "murderer" written on it. She said it is clear that Beijing is now in charge of Hong Kong's day-to-day affairs and she wants to send a message to the central government.

"This Winnie the Pooh mask is to show that President Xi Jinping and the regime is trying to murder Hong Kong people when suppressing the protests. The anti-mask law bans us from covering our faces. But I'm wearing this mask to tell them, we will not be afraid," she said.

"No matter what ways they try to suppress us, they will not succeed, because we will keep going out."

Many of the protesters said they felt that the mask ban, introduced at the end of last week under emergency powers, is just another "weapon" to be used against them by the government.

Violators of the new law face a maximum punishment of one year in prison or a fine of HK$25,000.