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In addition to this Indian system, Koch is using the adapted colour symbolism of the
wayang kulit, in which variously painted leather puppets are used within a complex system
including colour, body size and facial configuration to indicate the mood or emotional state of
the characters. A white face shows youth or innocence; Yellow indicates dignity and
calmness; Red typifies tempestuousness, aggressiveness or fury; Black can mean anger or
strength (Brandon, 50-51).
The colour most closely associated with Mike Langford is the yellow of his hair; his
compassion and consideration are correspondingly never brought into question, though he
struggles in a very human way with self-control, and Ly Keang does manage to get him to
break his commitment to non-violence. Koch points out such details as the reddening in his
complexion when he sings (HW, 394), or the bright red shirt he wears the first time he ventures
out into the Vietnamese countryside and nearly gets killed. In addition, the theme of his
innocence and youth are closely related to his colouring. Volkov’s hair is ‘rope yellow’ (HW,
244), apparently rather darker than Langford’s, corresponding to his relatively higher level of
passion and lack of innocence.
In contrast, when Hong Kong native Jim Feng is described as having a yellow face, he is
ill from the report eye-witness account of Langford’s death. Yet, he is still calm and dignified
in his pain, and looking out the door at the ‘musing and peaceful’ green and mauve hills of
Cambodia which have nevertheless swallowed him up (HW, 446). The first NVA tank to roll
onto the grounds of the South Vietnamese Presidential Palace flies ‘a huge National Liberation
Front flag’ with, Koch carefully points out, a ‘yellow star’ (HW, 419), an obvious tribute to the
dignified compassion and self-control of Captain Danh and his men, and to their fight for the
restoration of dharma in Vietnam.
Cambodia is also a ‘dry, huge, empty, yellow-and-green dish of land’ (HW, 225). This
innocent landscape, lying ‘under towering clouds’—Jainist symbol of the veil of ignorance
cutting off the light (Zimmer, 1969, 550)—, is particularly vulnerable to the ‘axis of that
vagueness, hiding the black-clad Others’ (HW, 225), and is compared ominously to Australia’s
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