Coolie Hats

Coolie Hat is the term I knew for this type of hat:

The more politically correct name is Asian Conical Hat for which there is a Wikipedia entry.

It is the typical hat worn by farmers to protect themselves from the sun. Being made of straw or bamboo it is light and cheap. My father use to wear a straw hat in his farm at the lake that made him look like a Mexican farm worker.

Besides being a protection against the sun, it also had value in keeping the skin untanned. Long before European explorers made it to the Orient, in most Asian cultures, white(untanned) skin was considered a beauty mark, more having to do with class distinction. If you didn't have to work in the field as a farmer, then your skin was untanned(white) and you were rich(or served the rich). The same goes for long fingernails, farmers do not have long fingernails.

The coolie hats come in various sizes and it Taiwan they are still seen everywhere on people who have to work in the sun.

But that doesn't mean you can't improve on a good idea that has lasted for centuries. Here in the big city, Taipei, street sweepers use the coolie hat but have improved it with colors to make themselves visible to drivers.

But the best improvement I saw was this one.

Here the worker has taken the fabric from a discarded umbrella and fashioned it on top of the coolie hat. Now the hat protects from both the sun and the rain.