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A soft spot for colorful silk-spun flowers keeps 67-year-old Li Guiying young at heart. The craftswoman first learnt the art of ronghua and rongniao -- replica flowers and birds made from silk -- at age 17, when she went to work in Beijing Rongniao Factory.

Silk flowers, which come to life under Li Guiying's hand, look as beautiful as real ones.

Today, she is as fond of making the floss-like knick-knacks as ever, despite having to supplement her income occasionally with other work.

"I have become the only craftswoman in Beijing who still make these works of art," Li claimed.

Since 1998, when the factory closed, she has practiced her craft at home, also endeavoring to teach her son-in-law.

"My former fellow workers no longer make the crafts," said Li. She learnt her art under a tutor, named Zhang Baoshan, who also taught another man. He also became a master, but now sells vegetables, she said.

Ronghua flowers originated in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), while rongniao birds appeared in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) as a popular art. During the Qing years, Manchu women, including Empress Dowager Cixi herself, loved to wear ronghua flowers on their head as decoration, and put the rongniao birds on their tables.

Rongniao birds made with fine skill

Wearing ronghua flowers later became popular among common people, females in particular. There is a saying which goes that, for celebrations, "girls ask for ronghua flowers to wear, boys ask for firecrackers to fire, grannies asks for long strips of cloth to bind feet".
At Li's home, colorful silk flowers like lily, lotus and peony are displayed. Lovely creatures including parrots, chicken, butterflies, monkeys, and pandas brighten the place.

Making such works requires great time and patience. Li could work as long as half a year to complete a piece of tapestry. The smallest work still takes two or three days to complete. Prices range from 30 yuan to 10,000 yuan.

Li buys threads of silk from southern China, as she says this is where the best material is produced. She then embarks on the fastidious procedure of tidying tangled silk threads, twining them on brass wires and cutting the surface of the silk threads to make flossy effects.

(China Daily June 29, 2007)