Straw Waterproofs – From Southern China Farm to Macao Rickshaw Puller

One of the most impressive and eye-catching exhibits at the British Museum’s China’s Hidden Century exhibition is a stunning straw farmer’s coat from the mid-nineteenth century made from palm- and rice-fibres, a cape composed of folding layers of straw. To display it the British Museum conservation team individually cleaned the thousands of straw stalks that make the cape waterproof.

It took me a while to remmeber where I had seen such straw capes in a more contemporary setting but then I remembered – this picture of 1940s (I think) rickshaw pullers lined up and awaiting fares in Macao on a rainy day…