This winter, at the Shenyang Imperial Palace, a little girl adorned with a jade-blue peony crown captured the attention of passing tourists. Accompanied by her parents for photo shooting, the little girl’s attire was particularly eye-catching due to her crown, which was inspired by the artifact known as the “Kingfisher Feathers Inlaid Black Satin Female Hat with Phoenix and Peonies Pattern Design” from the Qing Dynasty. This artifact is also renowned as one of China’s Top 10 Stunning Artifacts.
The imitative crown was meticulously crafted by Lyu Huazhong, the little girl’s father, himself. The crown boasts vibrant color and an elegant design, looking very authentic. More astonishingly, the raw materials used to create the crown were sourced from discarded items such as summer mats, iron wires, and coat hangers. For instance, the vivid kingfisher-feather phoenix was crafted with flexible jade-blue sticks. The video of the little girl wearing the crown at the Shenyang Imperial Palace quickly went viral across the internet, prompting many remote netizens to show their desire to see the original artifact at the Shenyang Imperial Palace personally.
Lyu Huazhong is a graduate of Shenyang Conservatory of Music. One year ago, he embarked on his recreating journey by chance. He began to craft discarded materials commonly found in daily life into various ancient headwears. “It all started when my daughter’s school organized a fashion show, where many children chose to dress up as characters from foreign animated films like Elsa and Snow White. And they wore Western-style headwears,” said Lyu Huazhong. “But I think our ancient Chinese crowns are elegant and exquisite, which boast oriental aesthetics and carry historic romance. So, I decided to make a traditional Chinese headwear for my daughter. I tried to replicate the Kingfisher Feathers Inlaid Black Satin Female Hat with Phoenix and Peonies Pattern Design from the Qing Dynasty at the Shenyang Imperial Palace with discarded materials. I didn’t expect it to attract so much attention.”
Since then, Lyu Huazhong has also crafted female crown called “Year-Round Scenery” from the Song Dynasty using pomelo peel, female official’s hat from the Qing Dynasty with garlic skin, and kingfisher feather headwear from the Qing Dynasty with corn leaves... As Lyu made more and more headwears, they began to fill the cabinets in his house.
Lyu Huazhong is not only a “treasure father” who loves handmade crafts, but also a vlogger with 1.45 million followers. He posts videos of crafting various headwears online, earning numerous praises from netizens for his “incredible replication”. “Videos with traditional cultural elements always attract a lot of attention. More and more netizens view my video channel as an interesting window to experience traditional culture. I am also proud of our Chinese traditional culture”, said Lyu Huazhong.
