Starting from the middle of the twentieth century, countless buildings with colourful neon lights, along with the Victoria Harbour and the skyline composed of tall buildings, Hong Kong’s cityscape was defined. A Mainland economist, Aric Chen said, “When you think about Hong Kong and its visual culture, the first thing that comes to mind is neon signs.” However, the colourful neon lights may not represent Hong Kong. There are three colours that carry Hong Kong people’s memory and represent the spirit and personality of Hong Kong people. They are red, white and blue. Red, white and blue is a plastic woven fabric, called candy-striped plastic.
Red, white and blue are everywhere in Hong Kong. In design, in addition to the original three-colour thick lines, but also appeared plaid-pattern style. The pictures above showed detail of plastic woven lines. This method of knitting technique can make plastic bag stronger, more waterproof and tough. The cross section of horizontal and vertical line is square.
Many shop-owners are willing to buy a large number of candy-striped plastic as pictures show above. They use red, white and blue plastic cover their stuff everywhere because it is lightfastness. Blue is a cold colour that can bring cool for shop-owners in summer. The candy-striped plastic in bottom-left picture is faded, maybe this shop has a long history. They use different colours shop by shop to distinguish their shop areas.
Candy-striped plastic also can be very waterproof thanks to its material and woven technique. These two shop-owners in pictures above are using red, white and blue plastic wrapping their mesh ware to prevent from water and getting rusty. These colours are contrast with each other and eye-catching, which can make passengers notice and be careful under-foot safety.
Red, white and blue plastic was favoured by Hong Kong people not only because of its powerful function, but also its low-cost. Candy-striped plastic is usually woven in longitude and latitude lines by PP strips, the interior is covered with PE to be waterproof. Speaking of quality, plastic bag’s white, red and blue colour is plastic colorant, so it is not only bright, but also has better lightfastness. Instead of printing these colours by CMYK mixing, the colour is printed exclusively with spot-colour printing, such as black, red, yellow, green, white and blue. While the colour gamut of this spot-colour printing is wider than CMYK, it can show more colours than the CMYK. This spot-colour printing is pre-mixed by the printing factory or produced by the ink factory directly which means it can save more costs for weaving cloth factory. Candy-striped plastic has many colours, but why red, white and blue are popular in Hong Kong? In the past, people used to host weddings or funerals at home and set up scaffolding covered with blue and white plastic cloth and later red colour joined since red is a celebration colour in China. Then it has become the red-white-blue composition today.
Everyone thinks that red, white and blue were invented in Hong Kong or Mainland. In fact, the birthplace of red, white and blue was Japan. Later it was introduced to Taiwan and then to Hong Kong. What is certain is that the functions of red, white and blue plastic were wide used, flourished and popular by Hong Kong people; and the red, white and blue bags are the first to be manufactured to visit relatives by Hong Kong people. Red, white and blue popularised in the era of rapid economic growth in Hong Kong. Initially, red, white and blue canvas were mostly used in the New Territories farms sheltering from wind and rain. Later, increasing number of high-rise buildings were built. To prevent the flying dust, environmental protection legislation required red, white and blue plastic must cover the land every time they demolished a building. As a result, demanding of red, white and blue plastic increased significantly. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Mainland was open the Hong Kong with frequent contacts. Many Hong Kong residents back to their hometown to visit relatives with gifts, daily necessities and home appliances. Later, Luohu Customs banned the use of flat bars to hang goods. Therefore, the light, durable and cheap red, white and blue plastic bag came into being. As early as more than 30 years ago, when red and white and blue plastic were not widely used as traveling bags, Hua Li has sold red, white and blue canvas bags in Sham Shui Po. The founder and creator of red, white and blue plastic, Hua Li, with its flexible mind and a pair of skilled hands, invented the red, white and blue canvas bag in the 1970s and 80s, as essential travel stuff for many Hong Kong people going home to visit relatives. Since then red, white and blue plastic bags and visiting relatives became synonymous.
There are two red, white and blue plastic bag in picture above. Shop-owners are using these plastic bags to cover one of their goods storage for safety that people will not see what is in the storage. Or maybe owners bought some groceries carried by this bag and fixed here to save more space.
Many of this trolley with cardboards covered by candy-striped plastic are placed on street. They are well protected from water and sun.
Stanley Wong, a Hong Kong designer said, "The red, white and blue was used as tape to protect the walls from sand, it was durable and waterproof. Then it was used to make plastic bags. It appeared in many large and small stations and freight terminals and carried our dreams and aspirations. Others think this kind of plastic bag is local and out-of-date, not fashionable. In my opinion, it is a symbol of Hong Kong's great spirit: existence, participation, hard work and suffering; it is the spirit of Hong Kong people who represents Hong Kong in the 1960s and 1970s. However, at the moment, it is getting more and more frivolous. What Hong Kong people now is preoccupation, careless, stingy and everything comes with 'I' first. As a Hong Kong native born in 1960, I feel quite sadden and pity. "
The colour of candy-striped plastic, red, white and blue is simple, with simple production, simple lines. It is beautiful, with beautiful lines, and there is a simple beauty. Its aesthetic looks simple and clean. Besides, it is tough, reliable and flexible which represents the indomitable, flexible and work-hard spirit of Hong Kong people. It can be believed that most old Hong Kong people hope their great spirit exists in next generation, and next of next as long duration as red, white and blue candy-striped plastic.
By Binger Li
A second year Visual Communication design student in University of Technology, Sydney.
Flickr:
Reference list:
Nick D.n.d, What’s the Difference Between 4 Colour Process Printing and Spot Colour Printing, Graphic Design Employment, viewed at 17 February 2017, <http://www.graphic-design-employment.com/4-color-process.html>
Oliver Chou 2015, We need to recapture the Lion Rock spirit, says designer Stanley Wong, South China Morning Post, viewed at 18 February 2017, <http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/1804842/we-need-recapture-lion-rock-spirit-says-designer-stanley-wong>
RWB330 2017, Stanley’s view on Red-White-Blue, RWB330 HK, viewed at 17 February 2017, <http://rwb330.hk/father-of-rwb/stanleys-view-on-red-white-blue/?lang=en>
