"Cloth Tiger" And "Toad Shoes" Are The Best Sellers In The Dragon Boat Festival

The picture shows sun Yuzhen's one inch long cloth tiger. Photo by Xing Yanan

In front of Wang's courtyard in Shengfang ancient town, Bazhou, Hebei Province, 72 year old aunt sun Yuzhen set up a stall early to sell all kinds of Dragon Boat Festival cloth art.

Shengfang was founded at the end of the spring and Autumn period. Its long history and unique folk culture gave birth to the unique customs of the Dragon Boat Festival, among which the Dragon Boat Festival cloth art has its own style. Sun Yuzhen is a good hand in making the Dragon Boat Festival cloth art.

"When I was a child, I used to watch my mother do all kinds of cloth art, and I would follow suit." Sun Yuzhen said while showing the best-selling cloth art on the stall, and also the aunt's most proud work, little cloth tiger.

The picture shows the tiger girdle on the stall at the entrance of the scenic spot. Photo by Xing Yanan

According to reports, cloth tigers have to go through several processes, such as cutting cloth, sewing rudiments, filling cotton, and sewing. The last step is to make the tiger's nose and beard out of cloth of different colors, sew them with two bright black beads as eyes, and finally sew a word "King" on the tiger's forehead with a golden thread, Such a small tiger will be basically completed. Then string on the cloth to do cucumber, garlic, small gourd, small pepper, become the "tiger girdle.".

Every Dragon Boat Festival, wearing toad shoes, sewing the cloth tiger on the clothes, which means to ward off evil spirits, is also a blessing to children's safety, which is a traditional custom of the local people. "Give me this. I'll take it home and sew it on my grandson's shoulder." A tourist took a fancy to the little cloth tiger sun Yuzhen had just made and bought it back home happily.

The picture shows sun Yuzhen's innovative little tiger with a gourd base, homophonic for "Fulu". Photo by Xing Yanan

Sun Yuzhen's fabrics are exquisite and ingenious, ranging from small tiger heads that can be held up by fingers, tiger pillows as large as baby pillows, small gourds filled with wormwood leaves to repel mosquitoes, and small toad shoes worn by children, which are very popular with tourists. In addition, sun Yuzhen also tried to innovate in her spare time. She designed and produced a kind of cloth with a base for a little tiger to step on gourd. Its homophony is "Fulu", which means distinct meaning and is easy to wear. It is very popular.

Led by sun Yuzhen, more and more people made Dragon Boat Festival cloth art. She said with a smile, "most of them are not competitors, but the inheritance of traditional culture and local customs."