Tag Results for: Toys  Found: 34 Results

Liang Xiucai and his wife live a life deeply rooted in their heritage. They are artists who make dough figures, which they sell as toys at the market. Dough figures have a long history in this village but now are ...

There used to be many wolves around Lang Village. The children of the village couldn’t go out to play because the wolves were so dangerous. This folk tale describes what the villagers did to make their neighborhood safe for their ...

In Chinese culture tigers are symbolic of strength and consequently are a preferred theme for stuffed animals, hats, pillows, and shoes. The Chinese character hu, meaning tiger, is often sewn onto clothing as a play on its homonym, which is ...

Below are some samples of cloth animals made by Liu for the Olympics and for the year of the rat.

Cloth tiger artist Liu Qingha comes from a family of folk artists. Her father made opera costumes, paintings, and paper cuts, and her mother made tiger hats and shoes. The work of her parents inspires Liu to uphold folk art ...

Folk Art Transmission Ha’s great-grandfather and grandfather made kites to support their families. Ha’s father made kites for this reason, but he also considered kite making a family treasure and tradition, and so he focused on how to transmit this ...

The Beijing style of kite making involves very intricate decorative patterns with symbolic meanings. There are eight types of kites, each with a different structure and purpose, and suited to different conditions for flying. Kites like those made by Ha ...

Families have used yo-yos for fun and recreation for over two thousand years. Although they are called “yo-yos” in the West, the traditional Chinese name for them appropriately means “empty bamboo.” According to one story, the yo-yos that Mr. Zhang ...

Variety is key to yo-yos, and their sizes and shapes have grown more diverse with time. While yo-yos were originally made solely from bamboo, other materials are often used now. Since 1990, the diameters of yo-yos have increased. Zhang makes ...

The tradition of dough figures stems from the ancient art of making mud dolls and toys. With dough, however, the work can be much more highly detailed. Originally people used the figures as toys but they now have evolved into ...

The artist begins with dough made from rice flour, water, and honey. Many times watercolors are either added to the dough mixture or simply painted on to add color. He starts to form his figures with a limited palette of ...

Tigers are a popular choice for toys because they reflect children’s aspirations to grow up strong, and because they prevent harm and ward off danger. Aside from Nie’s mud tigers, popular subjects for mud dolls include children, scholars, and opera ...

The techniques used to produce mud dolls are passed down through the generations. Nie Xiewei learned this craft from a neighbor at age ten, but his grandfather made mud toys as well. All of his children know how to make ...

Watch Peng Yingben as she shares her process of rolling, baking, shaping, and painting dough knots and figures. You can also view the many different kinds of colorful birds, flowers, animals, and figurines made for wedding knots, given to bride ...

Folk artist Peng Yingben learned to make wedding knots, a traditional Chinese wedding gift, from her mother when she was ten years old. Creating wedding knots is a family tradition, as Peng’s mother learned the craft from her grandmother. The ...

This gallery shows the great variety of tiny figures created, ranging from roosters, to fish, to flowers. Each one represents a different virtue in Chinese culture.

Liang Xiucai works in tandem with his wife to make several dough figures at once. They go through an intricate process of steaming and drying the dough before painting it and letting it dry again. It all begins with a ...