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Yellow has become a colour loaded with cultural associations. The ancient Mayans associated yellow with South, the Maya glyph for ‘yellow’ meaning, not ‘gu10’, but ‘ripe’ or ‘precious’. The Manchu Five Races Under One Union new flag of China was yellow as was the flag of Manchukuo. The first ever emperor of China was known as the Yellow Emperor and members of the royal family in China were the only individuals permitted to display the colour in vestments or in buildings. During the Han Dynasty, the Daoist sect that executed an extensive rebellion, were called the Yellow Turbans.

In politics, yellow has often been appropriated by different parties or movements. The People’s Alliance for Democracy in Thailand were referred to as the Yellow Shirts. A yellow god Democrat in the USA refers to a Southern voter during the late 19th and early 20th centuries who doggedly voted Democratic due to a continuing resentment against the Republics dating to the Civil War period.