Weixian cloth toy

"Weixian Cloth Toys" are popular in Kaiyuan Street (formerly Zhangshi Town, Weixian County) and its surrounding areas in Hanting District, especially in the villages along the east and west coast of Bailang River. They are local original folk arts. It originated from the fact that young girls and young women in the embroidery room made little people out of rags to insert embroidery needles on them, and then pulled them out at any time when using them, so as to avoid being difficult to find for a while, commonly known as "needle pricking" or "needle sticking". According to the oral records of the inheritors, the "Needle Girl" took shape and appeared when it was clear and dry, and then gradually developed into a sachet, a tiger headrest, a tiger's head shoe, a doll, a cloth tiger, a door curtain pendant and so on. It is characterized by random design, shaping according to materials, making more use of cut leftover cloth, changeable colors, vivid meaning, especially primitive culture, which is deeply welcomed by the masses, especially by women and children, and has become a folk craft with strong local color. The raw materials for making cloth toys are all kinds of cloth, and now there are relatively high-grade flannel and silk, auxiliary materials are sawdust and velvet, and tools are scissors and needle and thread. It is of great significance to protect and inherit this craft: first, carry forward and exhibit the national folk culture, inspire the wisdom of working people and create colorful handicrafts; The second is to show folk customs and create a cultural atmosphere for building a harmonious society. The original shape of cloth toys was eclectic, and they were made at will according to the imagination of cloth heads and producers. Later, after they evolved into commodities, they were greatly improved from design to production. Weixian cloth toys mainly take all kinds of animals as the theme, and the styles mainly include cloth tigers, lions, cows, sheep and other animal shapes. With the development of society, artists have designed new shapes such as Pleasant Goat according to cartoons, which are deeply loved by people, especially cloth tigers, and have become the representative works of Weixian cloth toys. In the past, this craft was mostly passed down by mentoring, and it gradually developed into an industry after the reform and opening up. However, due to the influence of market economy factors, the process is shrinking day by day. In order to protect and inherit this traditional craft, we have implemented powerful protection measures: collecting and sorting out information and implementing archive management. Set up a special team to conduct in-depth field investigation and file relevant information.
Reprinted with attribution： https://cnlocality.com/(Chinese Specialty Products)