The Cloth Tiger, which had been very popular in the ancient times of China, is a cloth-made toy. It is a folk handicraft with strong local color due to its varieties and popularity.
The Chinese people think that there is a large character "Íõ(Wang)" ( the word means king) on the forehead of the tiger; Therefore, the tiger is named as "the king of the animals". The cloth tiger is deemed to be a symbol of exorcising, disaster prevention, and peace and luckiness, and it can also protect the fortune. It is reposed with people's pursuit of happiness.
There are no uniform specifications and patterns for the cloth tiger in the folk, the clever women have created different shaped cloth tigers with the different materials and their aesthetic standards. These cloth tigers are wrapped with yellow cloth, sewed by hand, and exaggerated with the original shape of the tiger by shrinking its body and tail and simplifying its lambs, but the expression of the tiger is represented more accurate and vivid. It is in accordance with the spirit of the Chinese traditional art that is "unworthy to be similar in shape, worthy to be similar in spirit". This image of the tiger blends the real tiger with the idealized tiger in the imagination, and it is endowed with human characteristics and emotion, so it looks very cute and charmingly naïve. Most of these artworks which suits both refined and popular tastes are made by country women; they are the crystal of wisdom and diligence of the folk artists.
