Anti-coronavirus hats. Chinese children wear social distancing hats at school.
With its 1,4 billion inhabitants, China is slowly returning to normal after a devastating battle against the coronavirus. In schools, Chinese educators are getting creative to ensure that children do not risk infection in the classroom. One idea, already put into practice, is the use of hats with long protrusions on each side to prevent the little ones from getting too close to each other.
By: Luis Pellegrini
About a thousand years ago, the long horizontal plumes on Song dynasty hats were supposedly meant to prevent officials from conspiring quietly with each other while at court.
Emperor Shen Zong of the Chinese Song dynasty popularized the fashion (mandatory for men of the court) of social distancing hats.
By order of the emperor, the minimum distance they were to maintain between each other was exactly the size of the side protrusions of their hats: just over a meter! Therefore, social distancing was, in fact, its original function!
The world turns in many ways, and today in China, social distancing hats have returned.
“Because children can see and feel these hats, and when the ‘wings’ flap against each other, they can better understand expectations and remember to maintain the necessary physical distance,” says Lam Chun-bun, associate director of the early childhood education department at the Hong Kong University of Education. Other visual aids, such as footprints stuck to the ground, also ensure that school-aged children do not get too close to each other.