Tiger-head shoes and caps are traditional Chinese folk handicrafts used as clothing accessories for children. In Chinese culture, tigers are regarded as auspicious and vigorous. It’s customary to decorate the upper and fore parts of shoes and caps with vivid images of tiger-head patterns in the hope that their children will become as robust and healthy as tigers. Great care and precision is needed to make the handcrafts including sewing, stitching and embroidering. Materials are usually colorful cotton fabrics and threads. Tiger-head caps and shoes have a huge market particularly during the cold winter and the New Year period. In the pictures, some senior craftswomen from Anhui Province display their products of excellent workmanship.

Fan Min and her neighbors stitched the the tiger-head shoes and caps in Xiaohualou Village of Dangshan County in Anhui Province. (Photo/Cui Meng)

(Photo/Cui Meng)

(Photo/Cui Meng)