This article is written by: Spring Plum Fox
Let me see who met this year?
Ah, it was me!
Originally, before every Spring Festival, I always wanted to buy some corresponding zodiac items to meet the scene, and I was even more impatient in the Year of the Tiger. Compared to the other eleven zodiac signs, the Year of the Tiger seems to have had a ready-made option early on – the Tiger's Head Hat.
Each of the zodiac signs looks like a hat, but only the tiger hat is special, it transcends the limitations of the zodiac and leaves its mark on childhood at different ages.
This time, even the young lady of the Winter Olympics put on a tiger hat, and it will not make people feel that there is too much emphasis on the year of the tiger and the feeling of catching horses.
lion? tiger? Silly is not clear
Regarding the origin of the tiger hat, there is a more mysterious-sounding but indeed historical evidence, and it is related to Greek mythology.
Hercules, the son of Zeus, was the god of Hercules in ancient Greek mythology, and he was cursed by her because he was not born to Hera, Zeus's wife, and needed to complete 12 impossible tasks, the first of which was to peel off the hide of the giant lion of Nemea. Hercules finished making the lion skin into an armor, and the lion made a helmet on his head.
△ Statue of Hercules
△ Statue of Mitredates VI
But how did the story of the lion become one of the origins of the tiger's head hat?
Because China does not produce lions, we only have tigers, and occasionally only some of them come to China through the Silk Road as strange beasts for ornamentation, and more lion images are known to the Chinese people through works of art, many of which have been deified and transformed. When you first recognize the lion's Chinese it is natural to compare it with a tiger, and your understanding of it is always between animals and mythical beasts, suān ní or lions.
In the Tang Dynasty, there were many warrior figurines, wearing beast-headed helmets, but it was actually difficult to distinguish whether it was a tiger or a lion. However, combined with the "fox helmet" mentioned in the literature, it may still be a lion image. Looking west, we can also see earlier images in the Heavenly Kings of the Buddhist Grottoes, which obviously bear obvious imprints of foreign cultural exchanges.
△ Tang Dynasty three-colored samurai figurines
△ Dunhuang Yulin Cave murals
△ Murals of the Kyzyl Caves
It should be pointed out that there is no technical barrier to invention and creation in the beast helmet itself, so as long as society has needs, it can be manufactured anywhere. However, the historical argument of material culture is not only based on whether the objective conditions are available, but also requires more credible evidence, especially whether people's subjective understanding is also prepared.
Cultural exchange is not a one-sided input and replication, but more like a process of acceptance, dissolution and development. After the Tang and Song dynasties, the head of the beast in the armor was less common, but instead the mighty and cute tiger head hat appeared in the folk. At this time, the folk worship of tigers also played an indispensable role.
Looking at the child hat, the tiger head hat is only one of the more prominent animal themes, and others such as fish, cats, rabbits, butterflies, dogs, chickens, pigs, unicorns, frogs, etc. are involved, and they are not played according to the zodiac, but they are not as distinct and common as tigers, so that everyone has the most impression of the tiger hat.
△ 1917-1919, Gambo's tiger hat under the lens
Black Tiger? Red Tiger? Folk customs are not to be found
Although tiger hats are so common and coincide with the Year of the Tiger, I have found it not easy to buy a special tiger hat. For example, I most often see on the Internet and travel goods is a relatively simple hood-style tiger head hat, with two round ears on the top, and the front will be printed, embroidered, patched, etc. to make the tiger's face pattern, and the pattern is similar.
△ Tiger head hats currently sold in the mainstream
But because of the interest, the richness of tiger hat styles I know is far beyond these. Even in the ten or twenty years since I grew up, it seems that many folk costumes are in the process of dying out, and the tiger head hat, as the most frequent child hat, still has many strong traces.
At the 2020 Henan Style Art Photography Exhibition, photographer Ma Hongbo put together 105 photos of children wearing tiger heads in township markets and temple fairs around the Spring Festival between 2008 and 2013 into a work of "Children's Tiger Head Hats in Eastern Henan", presenting the form of tiger head hats in eastern Henan while maintaining local characteristics.
△ Ma Hongbo's "Yudong Children's Tiger Head Hat"
These tiger hats are also mostly hood style, with black as the base, with bright multicolored cloth to make three-dimensional facial features, especially like to portray the eyes into red, bright and gorgeous and majestic.
When I was a child, I also saw another kind of tiger head hat in The Chow Sing Chi movie, the hat as a whole is more like a tiger head with an open mouth, with a golden yellow as the background color, depicting black stripes, and making a curled tiger tail behind the head.
△ Zhou Xingchi's tiger head hat
Since Zhou Xingchi is an adult and cannot wear a children's hat, the props on his head should be made for filming, and he cleverly uses the design characteristics of this tiger hat to contrast with the adult wearing a child hat to create a very witty effect.
This year's Spring Festival Gala has a martial arts program "Milk Tiger Xiaochun", this year's Spring Festival file has an animated movie "Little Tiger Dun Big Hero", using the same shape (it should be the Spring Festival Gala shape from the movie, the movie image itself is a short video IP), and the head is wearing a Zhou Xingchi-style tiger head hat.
△ Spring Festival Gala and animated movies
It can be clearly seen that the shape of the tiger hat in the Spring Festival Gala and the animated movie is influenced by Chow Sing Chi's movie, and the tiger hat in Chow Sing Chi's movie has a realistic basis (many of the costumes in Chow Sing Chi's movie are very interesting).
△ Tiger head hat
In some physical objects, it can be seen that in addition to the tail, this kind of tiger head hat generally has a beautifully decorated tail, which has nothing to do with the tiger shape, but appears more exquisite.
△ Tiger head hat Foreign collection
It is also because of Stephen Chow's movie that I later started a similar child hat, and sure enough, adults can't wear it, and cats wear it but it's too big.
△ Tiger head hat Author collection
From the actual object, it can also be found that why the Spring Festival Gala and the animated film are affected by Stephen Chow's films, rather than the real thing.
In addition to these two styles, it is also worth mentioning a circle hat, which looks like a hair band, has no cap, and has a beginning, which is convenient for adjusting according to the child's head circumference. The above will also do a variety of shapes, of course, there are tigers, personal feelings are particularly like kindergarten acting costume props, with a cartoon sense, do not have "laugh points".
△ Topless tiger head hat
past? future? Folk art does not decay
From the above picture, it is not difficult to see that these tiger head hats used in the folk are actually difficult to see the original animal form of the tiger, and probably the tiger himself does not know that this is his own degree. Compared with adult hats, the functionality and decoration of children's hats are more prominent, plus they are often handmade by family, adding a lot of personal ideas, and eventually evolving into such a colorful style.
So for me, the single tiger hat that I get from searching online confuses me.
For example, I personally want a tiger hat that is not so well-behaved, but a little weird and a little mean, like this:
We have no way of understanding how the designers and makers of these tiger hats once conceived of them, and they should have a soul of affection and humor.
Over the years, everyone began to look for some traces of the past culture, make some designs that have the imprint of this land but are very suitable for the needs of the present, and named it "National Style". But it feels like it's not going so far, and when it's time to pick, I always feel like something is missing.
This article was written years ago, the content of the Winter Olympics, Spring Festival Gala, spring festival movies is added later, it is obvious that the "tiger hat" element is used, it is not ugly. Under the relevant Weibo, there are also many voices seeking to buy, which shows that it satisfies the preferences of some people. But for me, there are some deficiencies.
Maybe I don't have waist pain when I stand and buy things, but I always want to see more vitality and more diverse cultural and creative products growing from different soils.
Thanks for reading, like please remember to share oh ^_^
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