Li Aiping developed an interest in making traditional crafts when she was a girl. Given the support she received from her family, Li worked hard and continuously improved her cloth-tiger-making skills. The cloth tiger is widely regarded by Chinese as a popular folk craft. Li is an inheritor of the cloth-tiger-craftmanship, which has been added to the intangible cultural heritage list of Shanxi Province, in north China. During the past three decades, Li Aiping and her husband, Li Yanzhong, have done their part to promote cloth tiger folk art.

Passing on Skills

Li Aiping was born in 1956, into a carpenter's family, in Shangwu, a village in Zuoquan County, in Shanxi. Her mother and grandmother were good at making clothes and crafts. Li Aiping is the third-generation inheritor of the cloth tiger handmaking skills, which have been passed down through her family.

After she graduated from senior high school, in 1973, Li Aiping became a math teacher. In 1978, she married Li Yanzhong, who had been her schoolmate. When Li Aiping was busy with her teaching assignments, Li Yanzhong assumed responsibility for looking after the family. He bought many books about designing and making crafts for his wife. In 1990, Li Aiping began teaching at a vocational school in Zuoquan County. There, she established a course to teach students how to design and make cloth-based crafts. She worked at the vocational school until 2003, when she retired.

After she retired, Li Aiping established her company. In 2009, she registered the trademark, "Jiang Jun Hu" (meaning "general tiger"), to better promote the tiger-shaped crafts she made from colorful cloth.

Supported by her husband, Li Aiping has created more than 100 cloth-tiger items during the past 30-plus years. The couple has devoted themselves to inheriting and protecting the folk-craft-making skills passed down in Zuoquan.

Educating Children

Li Aiping and Li Yanzhong have a son and two daughters. The couple urges their children to read good books, follow people with good manners, and perform kind deeds. They often hold family meetings, during which everyone is encouraged to give his/her opinion about the topics being discussed. Li Aiping and Li Yanzhong love and respect each other. They are attentive to and communicate with their children, and that has helped the children grow up in a happy, harmonious family atmosphere.

During one family meeting, Li Aiping and Li Yanzhong raised the following idea: Developing a cloth tiger cultural brand featuring the image of Jiang Jun Hu, to better promote the folk art and red culture that originated from Zuoquan County. Their children offered advice, and discussed the significance of developing traditional handmaking skills. 

In 2017, with support from the local government, Li Aiping and her family established — and later expanded — a folk cultural base. The family hoped the pretty and cute cloth tigers, produced under their brand, would help their customers feel positive.

Boosting Women's Employment

Li Aiping and her family care about the development of their hometown. In particular, they want to help rural women find employment and increase their incomes. In recent years, the family has provided raw materials — for free — to local women during the slack season, when the women do not have to perform much work on their farms. They have helped approximately 1,000 women work at home, making the cloth tigers. Li Aiping and her family have provided training to disabled people and their families, to help those families develop craft-making skills so they can earn a living.

The folk cultural base, established by Li Aiping's family, has provided jobs to local women and college graduates, who have returned to work in their hometown. Since the beginning of 2020, Li Aiping, joined by her daughters and daughter-in-law, has offered cloth-tiger-making classes in schools in Zuoquan, Taiyuan (capital of Shanxi Province), and Shenzhen (in south China's Guangdong Province). The family has also participated in activities to promote family virtues, especially encouraging women to adhere to a thrifty lifestyle, and to help pass on moral virtues to other families.

Li Aiping's family was selected a National Most Beautiful Family in May 2023.

Photos from Interviewees

Source: Department of Family and Children's Affairs of the ACWF

(Women of China English Monthly June 2024 issue)

Editor: Wang Shasha