In China, green hats symbolise a man’s humiliation from an unfaithful wife, a belief dating back nearly 2,000 years.
TO most people, a green hat is just a fashion choice.
But in Chinese culture, it is the ultimate symbol of humiliation — a man whose wife has been unfaithful.
According to South China Morning Post, the phrase “wearing a green hat” dates back nearly 2,000 years, rooted in ancient class systems and symbolism.
Back then, green was not the fresh, lucky colour it is often seen as today.
It was viewed as “mixed” and impure — a combination of blue and yellow — and considered inferior compared to the five “pure” colours: red, yellow, blue, white, and black.
In early Chinese dynasties, green attire was reserved for lower-ranking officials, while the elite wore the more “honourable” hues.
Tang dynasty poet Bai Juyi once lamented in Ode to a Lady’s Pipa Play that his “green gown was stained with tears” — written during his demotion, when he was forced to wear the colour symbolic of low status.
Things got worse for green in the Tang and Song eras.
A county governor named Li Feng devised a punishment for erring subordinates: he made them wear green headscarves as public shame.
Later, during the Northern Song dynasty, defectors and betrayers were forced into green uniforms — a mark of disgrace.
The association between green headwear and shame took a darker turn in the Yuan dynasty, when men with relatives in prostitution were ordered to wear green scarves.
By the Ming period, the insult had fully evolved — calling a man a “green headscarf” became a way of mocking him for having an adulterous wife.
Fast forward to today, and the phrase still carries weight.
To say someone “wears a green hat” is to say he’s been cheated on.
Online slang has added twists like “there’s a grassland on his head” — a cheeky jab at the same idea.
The taboo runs so deep that even celebrities are not spared.
In 2021, when Chinese singer-actor Gu Jiacheng sported a green baseball cap, social media flooded with comments like “You’re so brave to wear that!”
One Beijing influencer even shared how her Austrian husband’s green cap turned heads and smiles in a local park — proof that in China, the colour green still carries centuries of cultural baggage.
