As an old folk craft, "Tribute Duster of the Cai's in Tianjin" with a history of over a hundred years has been passed on for five generations. "Tribute Duster of the Cai's" was founded by Cai Xijiu, the great-grandfather of Cai Xuebin. During Emperor Xianfeng's reign in the Qing Dynasty, the dusters made by the Cai's were recommended by Huanggu Temple to the imperial court and became the dusters for the exclusive use of the imperial family. Cai Xuebin, the fourth generation of the family, has already acquired the unique craft. "According to the ancestral doctrine, the offspring of the Cai's may not choose duster-making as their career; however, they must learn the craft of making feather dusters." So far, the craft has been passed to the fifth generation - the daughter and the son of Cai Xuebin.
As introduced by Cai Xuebin, it needs about 250 gram of chicken feather to make a feather duster, meaning about a thousand chicken are needed, for only a small section of feather between the neck and the wings can be used to make dusters. Moreover, the chicken must be fed with living worms and raised naturally. By contrast, the quality of feather can not be guaranteed if the chicken is fed with fodder. In addition, the chicken has to be alive when the feather is taken. The process is called "extortionate depilation"; in this way, strong franklinism can be produced for the duster to absorb the dust rather than to be stained with dust. Every feather duster of the Cai's has to go through 18 procedures before being finished. The last procedure is to tie up the duster, which is the core craft of the whole process, distinguishing the tribute duster of the Cai's from the ordinary.
