In the midst of every crisis, certain industries naturally flourish. Sometimes it seems this idea can be employed for good, such as World War II pulling the United States out of depression, while other times it can bring out the worst, exemplified by the number of phony charities that appeared after 9/11. Sometimes, however, it’s just for fun – and such is the case for one such business that has blossomed since H1N1 hit Xinjiang: face masks.

As I mentioned before (read H1N1 in Xinjiang: Suspected and Confirmed), for a period of time a couple months ago face masks were mandatory for all students and teachers from kindergarten to high school. Although many students still wear their masks today as a precaution, most have ditched them as the health threat has subsided. Personally, the masks the school handed out were so uncomfortable and small that they strained to cover my big face while pulling my ears into full-sail position.

There was a need for good face masks and it didn’t take long for someone to realize the business potential.

Soon every supermarket, clothing store, school supply store, and bazaar was (and still is) selling them. In typical Chinese fashion it wasn’t difficult to find masks bearing the Nike, Adidas or North Face logos. Heaven forbid I walk around town wearing a no-name brand face mask. Likewise many well-known characters such as SpongeBob and Spiderman were seen crawling across kids faces at school.

But my favorite was the company that decided every person should have the freedom to paint their face however they darn well pleased. Instead of paint, however, they provided a cross stitch. You could stitch a flower, a poem, or even a set of luscious lips and then proudly fend off the dangerous H1N1 flu in style.

Unfortunately not many of these companies decided to make a size “large”, but I figured that as long as all of my students were wearing masks, I had nothing to worry about. Except looking cool, of course.