Hairy Monkey
Wednesday, July 05 2017 Fangfang Liu
Of all the curiosities one can find in China, few are more bizarre than Hairy Monkeys.
Traditional Hairy Monkey Handicraft
Hairy Monkey was founded by Wang Zifeng in Qingrentang Herbal Shop, south of Beijing in Tongzhi Period in Qing Dynasty (1862-1874). Wang Zifeng has been an apprentice of Qingzhitang Herbal Shop where he leaned about how to prepare medicinal materials. While he was there, he also learned how to make Hairy Monkey.
Cicada exuviations, yulan bud, akebia and hyacinth, the four Chinese herbs are the basic raw materials of making Hairy Monkey. Cicada exuviations are used to make the head, its front claws are used to make the lower limbs of the Hairy Monkey and the back claws are for the upper limbs of the Hairy Monkey. During the process, the cicada exuviations are dismembered. The head and the claws are dipped into warm water for cleaning. The front and back claws are adjusted to different angles and postures required before drying and using. Yulan buds are prepared at different sizes, 20, 15 and 5 mm. Akebia is cut into pieces as the straw hat of the monkey and hyacinth is boiled into a colloidal matter to stick all parts of the Hairy Monkey together. The most difficult procedure in making a Hairy Monkey lies in building the props. It would take the maker a whole day to make just four Hairy Monkeys.
Materials of Making Hairy Monkey
Hairy Monkey is a folk craft that is in Beijing only and it is one of the special toys in Old Beijing. In the early years of Tongzhi age, there were some craftsmen specialized in selling Hairy Monkey in the big or small temple fair which is in Dongan square or the front door. They made it with cicada slough and magnolia wood to present the laboring life of the citizen by personating act. It is said that “on site making and selling Hairy Monkeys” has been a must in Spring Festival on temple affairs in Old Beijing.
Hairy Monkey Toy
Cao Yijian devoted his whole life to explore, study and popularize the Hairy Monkey craftsmanship. He put all of his energy to endow this traditional culture with a totally new artistic form and thinking content. Therefore, people gave him a good name of Hairy Cao. Until the end of 1990s, he had made more than 200 works of art which can be categorized into folk-custom chapter, history chapter, times chapter, idiom and literary quotation, etc. Any art is originated from the life and above the life, so is the Hairy Monkey as a kind of folk handicraft. Hairy Monkey made by Cao Yijian absorbed the technique and theme of the old crafters, and also endowed its new meaning. Someone evaluated that Hairy Monkey made by Cao has attained the highest level of the handiwork.
With tiny humanoid figures made from furry magnolia buds and sloughed off cicada shells, Hairy Monkeys become vivid. Not that many creators of Hairy Monkey still exist. In a few Beijing families, the art has been passed from generation to generation over more than a century. There are probably fewer than a dozen folk artists in Beijing practicing this abstruse traditional skill, constructing exquisitely modeled tableau that illustrate scenes from Old Beijing life.
Hair Monkey with Story in Old Beijing