Tsinghua University

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.

" There was definitely nothing on The Paper , but we know what's on there, " A Woman who joined protests in Shanghai told The Bbc .

The trend has its roots in the 2020 Hong Kong demonstrations, where locals held blank pieces of paper to Protest against The City 's draconian new National Security laws.

Activists held The Paper aloft after authorities banned slogans and phrases associated with the mass Protest movement of 2019 that saw The City grind to a halt and officials violently clamp down on demonstrators.

The Bbc 's China correspondent Stephen Mcdonnell says the gesture is not only a statement about the silencing of dissent, but also " an up yours to The Authorities , As If to say 'are you going to Arrest Me for holding A Sign saying nothing?'"

Johnny, a 26-year old demonstrator in Beijing, told the Reuters news agency that The Paper had come to " represent everything we want to say but cannot say".

The trend has also seen China's massive Internet Censorship Machine kick into gear. On Weibo, the country's main Social Media outlet, mentions of " White Paper" have been scrubbed, attracting The Anger of users.

" If you fear a blank sheet of paper, you are weak inside, " one person wrote.

But The Sign has also become a lighting rod for abuse from those still loyal to the central government and angered by The Waves of Protest .

One video, thought to be filmed on Saturday at the Communication University of China in The Eastern city of Nanjing, showed an unidentified man angrily snatching a blank piece of paper from a protester before storming away.

In another video from later That Night , dozens of more students were seen on the campus holding pieces of white paper, standing In Silence .

Demonstrators - hamstrung by Beijing's censorship Machine - have also turned to other forms of anti-government expression, including sarcastic expressions of support for China's harsh Covid policies.

In one case, after officials ordered dozens of white sheet sporting protesters to stop signing anti-lockdown slogans they responded with sarcastic chants of " more Lockdowns" and " I want to do a Covid test".

And at Tsinghua University some students were seen holding pieces of paper with the Friedmann equations scrawled on them, which explain how The Universe evolves over time.

The use of the equation is understood to be a play on The Words " Free man".

But it is paper that has been The Most common sight at Chinese demonstrations, joining such items as umbrellas (Hong Kong ), rubber ducks (Thailand) and flowers (Belarus) as an emblem of modern Protest .

Source of news: bbc.com