Liyang Rong Media Center official WeChat
Round head, godly eyes, conspicuous "king" on the forehead... In the early spring sun, a pair of lively tiger head shoes is particularly cute. On Chating Street, Guxian Street, Liyang City, the 66-year-old Sun Quanzhen sat in front of her home and "showed" her intangible work. She has loved sewing tiger head shoes for more than 40 years, and is loved by everyone for her fine workmanship and variety of styles. This year is the Year of the Tiger, and people around her affectionately call her "Grandma Tiger".
"One day I live, I will do it for a day. Take this certificate, you must be worthy! The certificate mentioned by Sun Quanzhen is the honorary certificate of the representative inheritor of Changzhou's intangible cultural heritage, Changzhou's tiger head shoe making skills.
Tiger head shoes are a kind of children's shoes made by traditional Chinese folk handicrafts, the toe of the shoes is in the shape of a tiger's head, it has both practical value and ornamental value, and at the same time it is a mascot, people give it the function of driving away evil spirits. People still think that tiger head shoes can keep the devil safe, so they must make a pair of tiger head shoes for children to wear. It is precisely because of this that Sun Quanzhen and Tiger Head Shoes are related. "I made clothes for my son, I didn't learn it, it was all made by myself." A guest saw my son dressed playfully and bought two pairs. Sun Quanzhen thought that he could also have an income by making tiger shoes, so he did it in his spare time, which was more than forty years.
A small pair of tiger head shoes, but it is not simple to make. Soles, cuts, patchwork, embroidery, sticky beards, eye stitching... More than ten processes, Sun Quanzhen flying needle thread, handy. "You see the whites of this eye, but they can't be made of cloth, but cocoons." It's hard to find now, and this one was left behind when I was raising silkworms at home for more than ten years. The eyes made of silkworm cocoons are firm, and the wash will not wrinkle. "Sun Quanzhen is like a family treasure, tiger head shoes for her is not a simple livelihood, more like her children."
From a single winter tiger head cotton shoe, to today's tiger head knit shoes, tiger head sandals, adult tiger head shoes... Sun Quanzhen's embroidery has also been innovating, whether it is style selection, or fabric cutting, color matching, she has her own unique insights. "All year round, there are guests to buy, and I am also inspired by the guests to make more styles to meet different needs." Sun Quanzhen said while opening her "treasure chest", which stockpiled nearly a hundred pairs of various tiger head shoes, "making tiger head shoes takes time, the most traditional winter cotton shoes, to do a week, in order not to let the guests wait too long, I do a little more between free time." ”
To say that Sun Quanzhen's biggest concern is that there is no successor to this craft. A week, a pair of shoes, more than three hundred yuan, now young people are not willing to do it. "It's all made with one stitch and one thread, and there is not much money in a day." I asked my daughter-in-law and niece to come to school, and they refused, saying that it was better to go to work than this. Sun Quanzhen sighed, "Now the eyesight is not as good as before, and it is a day to be able to do it." If I leave, the craft will be lost in my hands again. ”
In the face of the difficulty of receiving apprentices and the lack of successors, Sun Quanzhen is full of worries, and still hopes that there will be young people to inherit her craft, "As long as someone is willing to learn, I must teach without reservation." ”
Oguri | Jiang Wenwen and Zhao Dan