#BBCtrending: China's President's Umbrella becomes Hong Kong protest symbol

A month since demonstrations started on the streets of Hong Kong calling for full democracy, images of umbrellas are still trending online - but protestors have focussed in on one umbrella in particular.

It belongs to Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meme developed after a photo of him holding an umbrella won China's top photojournalism prize. Edited images of Mr Xi in various scenarios holding the umbrella have been widely shared.

Hong Kong artist Kacey Wong was one of the first to use the umbrella as a protest symbol, and he has continued his drive to get people to share umbrella artwork on social media. Wong recently shared a pro-democracy video on his Facebook page which has been viewed almost 200,000 times. It starts off in black and white and features a selection of young people walking backwards. The second part of the video features the same words, but is in colour and the participants are walking forwards. So what message that can be interpreted from this video? "They're saying the government are trying to twist the facts and they are using the video to issue a reminder to people why they're on the streets." says Kris Cheng, a Hong Kong based journalist and political columnist.

The hashtag #UmbrellaRevolution has been used 393,000 times on Twitter and Instagram over the past month. #UmbrellaMovement has been used over 105,000 times over the same period. The peak of the conversation happened in the first week of October. On the streets, umbrellas are still being brandished. Earlier today, thousands of people rallied outside the city's government headquarters clutching them.

Reporting by Anne-Marie Tomchak.

Video journalist: Ravin Sampat.

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