Lively little cloth tigers, squeaking toad shoes on the feet, small gourd sachets filled with mugwort leaves… approaching the traditional Chinese festival Dragon Boat Festival, the Wangjia Courtyard Scenic Area in Shengfang Ancient Town, Bazhou, Hebei Province In front of the door, 72-year-old Aunt Sun Yuzhen set up a stall early, selling various Dragon Boat Festival fabrics.
Shengfang was founded in the late Spring and Autumn Period. The long history and unique folk culture gave birth to Shengfang’s unique Dragon Boat Festival customs, among which the Dragon Boat Festival cloth art is unique. Sun Yuzhen is an expert in making Dragon Boat Festival cloth art.
“When I was a child, I often watched my mother make various fabrics, which inspired me to follow suit.” Sun Yuzhen said while showing the best-selling fabric art in the stall, which is also the aunt’s most proud work – the little cloth tiger.
According to reports, cloth tigers need to go through multiple processes of cutting fabric, sewing prototypes, stuffing cotton, and sewing. The last step is also the finishing touch – “Sealing the King”. Find some cloth of different colors to make the tiger’s nose, For the beard, use two shiny black beads to sew them on as eyes, and finally use golden thread to sew the word “king” on the tiger’s forehead. In this way, a mighty little tiger is basically completed. Then skewer cucumbers, garlic, small gourds, and small peppers made of cloth to become a “tiger bag”.
Every Dragon Boat Festival, people wear toad shoes and sew fabric tigers on their clothes to ward off evil spirits and to wish their children peace. It is a traditional custom of the locals. “Give this to me. I will take it home and sew it on the shoulders of my grandson’s clothes.” A tourist took a fancy to the small cloth tiger that Sun Yuzhen had just made and happily bought it home.
The fabrics made by Sun Yuzhen are smart and exquisite, including small tiger heads that can be held up by fingers, tiger pillows as big as infant pillows, small gourds filled with mugwort leaves to repel mosquitoes, and small toad shoes for children, which are very special. Popular with tourists. In addition, in her spare time, Sun Yuzhen will also try to innovate traditional fabric art. She designed and produced a fabric gourd with a base for a little tiger to step on, which is homophoned as “Fulu”. It has a clear meaning and is easy to wear, so it is very popular.
Under the leadership of Sun Yuzhen, more and more local people are making Dragon Boat Festival cloth art. She said with a smile, “There are not so many competitors, but the inheritance of traditional culture and customs.”
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