Picture of the Day: Regina Ip's Burberry Boycott

Pro-Beijing lawmaker Ip seems to look longingly at her scarves

 

The uproar over cotton from Xinjiang has dragged fashion labels into the fray. Fast fashion brand H&M immediately felt the wrath of China when it was completely wiped out of the Chinese internet sphere when it declared it would not use Xinjiang cotton.

Other companies are sending out mixed messages with Hugo Boss saying on its website it did not use cotton from China's northwestern province, but its Chinese office said it did.

Then celebrities were caught up in declaring their allegiances too, with Cantopop singer Eason Chan Yik-shun cutting his ties with Adidas, while others supported Xinjiang cotton, such as Joey Yung, singer Pakho Chau Pak-ho, actor Jordan Chan Siu-chun, and actress "Angelababy" Angel Yeung Wing.

Politicians got into the act of showing off their patriotism, with Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee taking the lead.

On Twitter she posted a picture of herself sitting on a couch and seemly looks longingly at her three Burberry scarves. The British fashion brand said it would not use Xinjiang cotton.

Ip's post said Burberry is one of her favourite brands: "I will stop buying or using Burberry products until Burberry has retracted or apologized for its unfounded allegations against Xinjiang."

Is that all Ip has in her wardrobe from Burberry? Three scarves?

Hardly seems like a boycott... 

Facts on Lai See

Fresh new banknotes are usually handed out during Lunar New Year

In Hong Kong, for those who are single, and young, Lunar New Year is about receiving lai see (利是). In China, young people who are working give red envelopes (紅包) to their parents as a gesture of thanks for raising them.

The elderly and companies in Hong Kong like to follow the tradition of giving brand new bills -- starting new year -- which has led to a whole industry of printing new banknotes.

Lai see packets are usually filled with $20 or $100 notes

Here are some interesting facts:

HK$8 billion -- the total amount of money people exchanged to get new banknotes this year.

400 million -- the number of new banknotes needed in the run-up to the Lunar New Year.

200 million -- the number of new banknotes printed this year.

1 tonne of cotton -- needed to make 1 million banknotes.

200 million -- the number of banknotes that are yin-san or "good as new" for lai see. Banks have machines that sort out these notes.

Banks sort out notes that are good as new for lai see use too

HK$20 and HK$100 -- the most common denominations used for lai see. These bills are used most frequently and need to be replaced within 18 months.

HK$500 and $1,000 -- these higher denomination bills aren't used often and are usually replaced in two to three years.