Source: China News Network
(New Year to the grassroots) a needle and a thread to sew love expectations Zhejiang Changxing folk artists magic hands to give birth to "tiger"
Huzhou, February 3 (Xinhuan) -- In a studio in Yancheng Street, Changxing County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, Wang Cuiping, who is more than half a hundred years old, is lying on her stomach at a table covered with blue and white cloth and focusing on sewing cloth tigers.
Beside her, there are many cloth tiger ornaments, including tiger head hats, tiger head shoes, tiger shaped pillows, as well as ornaments of different shapes and sachets, she said, "This year is the Year of the Tiger, making cloth tiger means to please a good head." ”
Cloth tiger is a traditional handicraft widely spread in Chinese folklore, and was included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list in 2008. In the past, during the New Year's Festival, the older generation would sew a variety of cloth tigers to express their desire to drive away evil spirits and avoid disasters, ward off diseases and pray for blessings.
Wang Cuiping making cloth tiger Wang Jiehan photo
Wang Cuiping is the inheritor of Huzhou Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage and a member of the Zhejiang Folk Writers Association, and is known as the "Hundred Artists". With a skillful mind, she has been learning to thread needles and threads with her grandmother since she was 5 years old, sewing various cloth tigers, and has been practicing for more than 50 years.
"There are many forms of cloth tigers, including single-headed tigers, double-headed tigers, four-headed tigers, and cloth tiger pillows..." Speaking of cloth tigers, Wang Cuiping gushed endlessly. She said that making a medium cloth tiger usually takes 1 day from cutting to completion.
"First draw a sketch on the paper, use scissors to cut out the pattern of cotton, silk and other fabrics according to the pattern, and then sew it with needle and thread, and fill it with fluffy cotton or wormwood. After the sewing, it is also necessary to decorate the 'face' of the cloth tiger, make a beard with wool, sew the eyes and nose, and also use painting, embroidery, clipping and other techniques to draw facial features and patterns. Wang Cuiping said.
Not long ago, Wang Cuiping's right hand was fractured, and now she is still wrapped in bandages, and it is a little difficult to move. During the production, her husband Xu Kunnian assisted her on the side. Xu Kunnian is the non-hereditary inheritor of changxing county-level sugar painting, and the couple has always been a "golden partner".
Wang Cuiping and her husband Xu Kunnian conceived and sketched together wang Jiehan photographed
Over the years, Wang Cuiping and his wife have always taken cultural inheritance as their responsibility and are enthusiastic about public welfare teaching. In addition to cloth tigers, they also passed on the folk skills of paper-cutting, hand-knitting and palm weaving, and launched the "Silent and Loving" micro-public welfare project to teach more than 20 hearing-impaired people handicrafts and lead them to start a business and become rich.
"During this time, there were a lot of people who came to me for production and classes, and the schedule was full." Wang Cuiping said that although it is during the Spring Festival, some activities are made in advance with others, and we must keep our promises.
This year, Wang Cuiping designed some Fuhu images to welcome the Year of the Tiger. She said that although there are many ornaments produced by machines on the market now, people still prefer traditional handmade works, "these cloth tigers contain different emotions, and every stitch and thread is integrated with love and expectation for the next generation." (End)