China's protests: Blank paper becomes the symbol of rare demonstrations

So often one item comes to symbolise an entire protest movement. In China, that item is a humble piece of blank paper.

As dusk fell on Shanghai on Sunday evening, some of those who gathered at a vigil to remember the victims of a fire that catalysed the demonstrations came clutching sheets of paper.

Similarly, in the capital Beijing, protesters came armed with scraps of paper to a demonstration at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University, once attended by President Xi Jinping.

And in another striking video a young woman could be seen walking through the streets of Wuzhen - a town in the eastern province of Zhejiang - with chains around her wrists and duct tape over her mouth. In her hands was a sheet of unspoiled blank paper. read more