How Did a Handkerchief Turn an Entire Courtyard into Sound?

This game had many regional names, including variants meaning “the blind person catches someone” or “catching blind fish”, and its rules were never uniform. A common version used an old handkerchief to cover one child's eyes while everyone else dodged within an agreed room, courtyard or patch of open ground. Whoever was caught, or correctly identified, became the blindfolded player next.

Once sight disappeared, a familiar place changed immediately. The blindfolded child moved slowly with hands out, judging direction from footsteps, clothing and suppressed laughter. Others might clap once and quickly move away. Corners, table legs and thresholds stopped being background and became boundaries everyone had to recognise. If the area was too large, no one could be caught; if it held too many obstacles, collisions were likely. Places that were out of bounds therefore had to be settled before play.

For many people born in China in the 1960s and growing up through the late 1960s and 1970s, such a game required no purchased toy and little adult organisation. The handkerchief came from ordinary household use. What made the game work were spoken agreements about taking turns, not peeking, staying inside the boundary, and deciding what counted as a catch. Local memories differ, so no single version should be treated as a national standard.

Its distinctive feature was the temporary removal of visual advantage. The blindfolded player had to trust the others not to lead them into danger, while those evading capture had to manage sound and distance. The toy was not really the handkerchief. It was the brief order that a group of children maintained through sound, space and mutual restraint.

https://www.olympic.cn/museum/news/benguan/2020/0601/330962.html