TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The passing of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin (江澤民) is being “mourned” on a nationwide scale, with even e-commerce platforms turning black and white.

Websites of government organs and state media in China quickly became a palette of gray colors after the announcement of Jiang’s death, at 96, on Wednesday (Nov. 30). But the gray tone has spilled over to some other unlikely platforms, including search engine Baidu, e-commerce site Taobao, and the Chinese version of Instagram, Xiaohongshu.

The visual shock has left many in surprise as merchandise listings and celebrity profiles were inundated with black and white colors. Interestingly, some shopping interfaces of the platforms appear not to be affected by the change and remain “colorful,” wrote Liberty Times.

Some could not help but take a dig at the change, with comments like, “Why am I seeing photos of the dead?” “It’s freaking me out when I opened the apps at midnight,” “So underworld,” “Formalism going to extremes,” according to UDN.

The assault of black and white on Chinese websites is not unprecedented. Last December, Chinese websites for news, shopping, and food delivery went gray in commemoration of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in a move believed to stoke nationalism.

Screenshots of Taobao, Tencent, and Baidu apps. (Wen Lee images)