Hefei, 29 Jan (CnBC) -- Tiger shoes have the shape of a tiger's head, implying the purpose of warding off evil and ensuring peace. In the past, every New Year's Festival, every household had to wear tiger head shoes for children, which is the memory of many people's childhood. With the passage of time, the "tiger head shoes" have long faded from people's vision, but in the hands of Fan Min, a non-hereditary heir of Yanshan County in Suzhou City, Anhui Province, a pair of large and small tiger head shoes have brought back the forgotten different flavors of the year.
In the winter afternoon, the reporter came to the courtyard of Fan Min's house in Xiaohualou Village, Guandimiao Town, Yanshan County, only to see that the table was full of prepared tiger head shoes, flowers and greenery, and different styles, which opened people's eyes. On the side, the non-hereditary heir Fan Minzheng and his neighbors sat around, taking out the soles of their shoes, making uppers, embroidering tiger faces... Carefully made tiger head shoes.
For her, the fate with tiger shoes was a "stealing" in junior high school. "Seventeen years old is difficult to read, I saw my mother making tiger head shoes with others after school, the style is particularly beautiful, at that time I wanted to learn to make a tiger head shoes." 」 Fan Min said, "So I began to learn secretly, watching my mother's production process, and slowly learned." ”
Fan Min's mother is a craftsman who makes "tiger head shoes", and under her influence, Fan Min's love and persistence in tiger head shoes have been 50 years in the blink of an eye. Although tiger head shoes are small, the production process is cumbersome, the workmanship is meticulous, and there must be more than 20 processes before and after. Fan Min, who has been doing tiger head shoes for so many years, told reporters that now the style of tiger head shoes has become colorful, from the "king" word on the face of the earliest tiger head shoes, derived with flowers, plants, animals and other more patterns. No matter how the style changes, every stitch and thread in the tiger's head shoes is poured out with the love of the elders for the future generations. "Different tiger head shoes have different meanings, at present there are three main styles, there is a style with flowers, little girls like to wear, meaning that the little girl grows up as bright and beautiful as flowers; there is a kind of tiger head without the king character, which means that it is strong and solid; there is a kind of tiger with the king word on its head, which means that the child can become a pillar of the country when he grows up, and will grow up to be a tiger's head."
Handmade tiger head shoes from the sole to the upper, from the fabric to the pattern, everywhere is exquisite, can be regarded as an authentic New Year goods. Fan Min said that although tiger head shoes have gradually been forgotten by the public with the changes of the times, in many rural areas that pay attention to customs, when it comes to the Spring Festival, children still have the custom of wearing tiger head shoes. Pang Haiyan, a villager in Xiaohualou Village, Guandimiao Town, Yanshan County, bought two pairs of tiger head shoes here, she said: "I wore a tiger head hat and tiger head shoes when I was a child, and I want to buy two pairs of tiger head hats and tiger head shoes for my grandson, hoping that he will have a good luck and a good omen in the Year of the Tiger." ”
In the process of making tiger head shoes, Fan Min sincerely felt happy and satisfied. Nowadays, her tiger head shoes courtyard has a "new identity" - party building leads the poverty alleviation project base. She said that she will not stop exploring, hoping to make more people know tiger shoes, love tiger shoes, and be willing to inherit the intangible cultural heritage around her. "I'm sixty-seven years old, and I'm very interested in the making of this tiger head shoes and tiger hat, and I want the children to know that this is an intangible cultural heritage." I will continue to innovate the style of tiger head shoes, integrate into fashion, enhance the sense of beauty, and pass on this intangible cultural heritage. ”