The sale of Chinese zodiac ‘tiger’ related items is ramping with the upcoming Year of the Tiger in the Chinese lunar calendar. E-commerce platform JD says that since the last month, the sales of goods featuring zodiac elements have risen 9.4 times year-on-year.
The rising popularity of zodiac featuring goods shows the growing pride Chinese take in their traditional culture, both at home and abroad.
‘King of all beasts’, is what Tigers are known as in China. They are considered as a symbol of bravery and power. Antique Chinese seals show that in earlier times, patterns of tiger were carved on bronze and golden seals as symbols of military authority. The auspicious wild animal has the significance of expelling evil spirits in Chinese culture.
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The significance of the colour red is can also be seen around this festival as it is considered to be an auspicious colour in Chinese culture.
Clothing, handbags, cosmetics, stationery, snacks and various other goods are making rounds in Chinese markets with the element of the tiger zodiac applied to them.
Nanjing Yunjin Research Institute and fashion brand Teenie Weenie jointly launched a new series to celebrate the Tiger year on 17th December.
Consumer showed immense pre-launch support with overwhelming bookings. Over $1.57 million worth of sales took place in just two weeks.
Two products did amazingly well on the markets – one with the brand’s symbolic bear holding a cute tiger in her arms and the other, designed by Gao Wenzhi, featuring it wearing a red tiger hat.
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Footwear as a canvas
Tigers also widely feature on shoes this time. Tigrisso, a women’s brand in China, recently launched a pair of white shoes decorated with two embroidered tigers - Rank Badge with Tiger, a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and a Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) painted ceramic pillow in the form of a tiger. The former is located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York while the latter is from the Shanghai Museum.
The tigers from the two art pieces－one roaring, the other relaxing－show the animal's different sides.
The tiger zodiac is an important part of traditional Chinese culture, and a large number of brands are adding a Chinese essence to their designs.All around the world, the younger generation of Chinese descent is paying more attention to the recognition of their traditional culture. In the era of social media, the sense of old times has become a modern-day aesthetic for the Chinese to feel proud about.
