Tiger-head Shoes

Item name and level

According to a reply of 28 November 2023 from the Lishui District Culture and Tourism Bureau, eight projects were reported as entering the municipal-level representative ICH list in January 2023, among them Tiger-head Shoes, Hand-torn Chicken, Mingjue Pickled Greens, Helinfang Twin Dragons, Shrimp Lantern Dance and Shiqiu Fishing Songs. Tiger-head Shoes is one of the eight. The reply lists project names only and is the working statement of the bureau.

The fifth batch of the list of representative items of intangible cultural heritage of Nanjing, published on 20 January 2023 by the Nanjing Municipal People's Government under Ning Zheng Fa [2023] No. 11, carries the entry "Tiger-head Shoes", number NJ-VI-35, serial number 23, in the category of traditional fine art, with Lishui District as the applying area or unit. This entry therefore records the level as municipal and the item type as traditional fine art, with the fifth batch and the publication date of January 2023, and the project number is verifiable.

The municipal list gives only the project name, number, category and applying area or unit; it gives no introduction, no bearers and no guardian unit, so the guardian unit is still to be verified.

It should be noted that the category of this project in the list is traditional fine art, not traditional techniques. The shoe pattern is a work of fine art; even if the working steps include cutting and stitching, the official category governs, and this entry does not rewrite it.

One record of display and sale

According to a report of 21 May 2024 by the Hefeng Town People's Government of Lishui District, a themed market was set up at Changuo Village for the Wucunqiao Beautiful Countryside Wufan Festival on 15 May 2024, and among the snacks and handicrafts on site were "Tiger-head Shoes, bags and other traditional handicrafts".

This record establishes only two things: that Tiger-head Shoes appeared as a traditional handicraft at a village folk event in May 2024, and that the event was organised by the Hefeng Town government and held at Changuo Village in Hefeng Town. It cannot be used to infer the shape of the shoe pattern, the working steps, the patterns or the colours, because the report lists only the name of the item and records no technique; nor can it be used to judge the guardian unit or the bearers of this project. The attribution and level of the handicrafts listed there are not verified in this library.

To be added

The sources available to this library record only the name, number and category of the project, together with the single occasion of display and sale noted above. Still to be added: the shape and dimensions of the shoe pattern, the working steps such as pasting cloth stiffening and embroidering the tiger face, the cloth and embroidery thread used, the patterns and colours, the common designs on the vamp, the area of transmission and the township it belongs to, the bearers and the guardian unit. Until further sources are found, this entry records no detail of the craft or its history.

Further, the report on the 2024 market is an events news release, and serves only as a lead to the setting in which the item was displayed and sold, not as a basis for its date, level or line of transmission.