BEIJING, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Handmade Liu's lion head-shaped hats, a traditional civil craft highlighting the exquisite Shandong or Lu embroidery in Lanling County, is regaining popularity among local people in Linyi City of Shangdong Province, east China.
With a history of more than 120 years, the Liu's lion head-shaped hats embroidered for children by female members of Liu family in Lanling are particularly popular given their pretty design and auspicious meaning and have been a typical symbol of traditional custom in southern Shandong.
In general, there are two types of lion head-shaped hats, the cotton-padded ones with embroidered cloths as their "tails" and the ordinary ones, both of which are made via five phases of procedures including materials preparation, cutting, embroidery, stitching, trimming and combination.
Among all the procedures, embroidery patterns, regardless of others, are of the most importance in making lion head-shaped hats.
Apart from using the traditional embroidery techniques, lion head-shaped hat making by women of Liu family in Lanling adopts many stitching methods known in Lu embroidery with also bold use of colors such as red and purplish red to manifest the loveliness and joy of children.
When the eyes, nose and ears on a lion head-shaped hat are stitched with different colors of threads and trimmed with gold threads or colorful ribbons or embroidery floss, the entire lion head-shaped hat becomes more lifelike, which embodies the essence and beauty of Lu embroidery.
Liu Jingzhi, the inheritor of her family's lion head-shaped hats making technique that was listed among the city-level intangible cultural heritage (ICH) programs in Linyi City in 2016, explored, on basis of the techniques inherited from her family members, more new embroidery methods in the past several decades.
As a master of these traditional and new stitching methods, Liu guided many females in her family to learn about making lion head-shaped hats and established the Liu family workshop to create innovative handcrafts of diverse types to revitalize the traditional craft.
To date, embroidery works of her workshop have been exhibited in many exhibitions such as the China (Linyi) toys, early childhood education, and maternity and infant products expo, China (Linyi) international art expo, Shandong handcrafts expo and ICH works going into scenic spots and campuses activities in Shandong.
Reported also by TV programs of Lanling TV station and Linyi TV station in succession, many handmade products from Liu Jingzhi's workshop can be spotted in Lanling now, including lion head cotton shoes, trousers decorated with lion heads for infants, pillows for children, hats for the juvenile, cloth animals, cloth lotuses, and embroidered bags. (Edited by Duan Jing with Xinhua Silk Road, duanjing@xinhua.org)
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