From simple paper and sticks, Li Mei creates beauty and surprise, proving handcrafted traditions still touch hearts today.
Li Mei was mid-sentence when she reached across the table, picked up what looked like a stick wrapped in tightly folded colored paper, and gave it a single twist.
It opened into a perfect sphere. Another twist, and three smaller orbs appeared. She kept going, each movement producing a new form: a flower, a crown, a lion's open mouth — one object, about 20 shapes. The routine took no more than a few seconds. Then she set it down and smiled, as if she already knew the reaction that would follow.
"Every time I demonstrate it, all it takes is one move, and people are stunned," she said. "They want to know how it works, and then they immediately want to try it themselves."
Li, 36, is a representative inheritor of the fanlihua-making technique, or paper-flipping flowers, a traditional Chinese paper handicraft. A former English teacher with more than a decade of classroom experience, she left teaching to help preserve the paper toy, which has a history of more than 300 years.
Her decision was not one dramatic leap, but a series of smaller turns that gradually brought her here.
Fanlihua originated in Beijing and spread across China over the centuries. But as Li learned more about the craft, she was surprised to discover that it had largely disappeared from its birthplace.
The tradition had survived, however, in her husband's family workshop in Shandong. Now an established brand called Zhuangyuan Workshop, it stands on the site of the former home of Song Dynasty scholar-official Chai Chengwu (934-1004). Students still come there to pray before exams, giving the name zhuangyuan — the top scholar in the imperial examination system — a meaning that remains alive today.
Li's father-in-law and his elder brother were the kind of craftsmen who could sit quietly for hours and devote themselves to a single task. That focus showed in every piece they made. But they were getting old — one in his mid-60s and the other in his mid-70s — and were ready to retire. If they did, the workers who had spent years in the workshop would be left with nothing.
"The materials are just paper and sticks, but what you can make with them is beautiful to look at and fun to play with," Li said. "Letting something like that disappear would be such a waste."
In 2023, she brought fanlihua to a Beijing temple fair to test the response. Many visitors were surprised to see a toy from their childhood making a comeback, and they were eager to show their own children how to play with it.
The older generation recognized it; the younger generation still found it fun. For Li, that was the proof she needed.
Since then, the work has become a two-place operation. The Shandong workshop handles production: cutting, binding, dyeing and preparing parts in advance so orders can be filled quickly. From Beijing, Li manages much of the rest: product development, custom commissions, community events and hands-on activities for visitors.
Her years in the classroom, as it turned out, had prepared her better than she first realized.
"The logic is the same," she said."First, you capture their attention, explain what it is and why it matters. Then you do it together."
She still writes lesson plans and designs workshop courses. Only now, the subject is paper, color and movement.
At a recent session with nearly 50 fine arts students at Minzu University of China in Beijing, Li found that fanlihua could still speak to a generation with no memory of it.
When she asked how many had seen fanlihua before, only one or two hands went up. When she asked who knew how to play with it, no one raised their hand.
"They were all born after 2000," she said. "But the moment I showed them the transformation, they were completely absorbed."
By the time the students reached the dyeing step, their own artistic training had begun to show. Their color choices were bold and unexpected, Li said, and when the finished pieces opened successfully, they were excited by the toy itself and by the sense that they had made it their own.
Li's fluency in English has also become useful. At Beijing markets — from the Panjiayuan flea market in 2023 to the Longfu Temple area today — foreign visitors often react much like Chinese visitors seeing fanlihua for the first time: "amazing", "incredible", "unbelievable". Many are happy to buy the toy because it is compact, affordable and easy to carry home.
The workshop's Chinese loong design has sparked another kind of conversation. Visitors often ask,"How much is this dragon?"
Li corrects them gently. "This is not a dragon," she said. "This is Chinese loong."
To her, the distinction matters. The Chinese loong is auspicious and protective, different from the fearsome dragon many foreign visitors know from Western stories. When she explains the difference, some visitors lean in and ask more. Some even want to learn the Chinese pronunciation.
Chinese customers, too, sometimes buy several pieces at once, telling Li they plan to take them to family or friends in the United States, Canada or Malaysia. For her, those moments show that fanlihua can travel — not only as a toy, but as a small piece of Chinese culture.
Li has begun translating the play routines into English rhymes.
"Sunshine shines, good luck to you. Swing to the left, all colors show; swing to the right, colors glow," she recited, laughing. She admitted it is still a work in progress.
She is also preparing bilingual product pamphlets and an English-language curriculum. But for Li, the goal is the same in either language.
"People have grown too used to simply buying things," she said. "We have tremendous material abundance now, and mass-produced goods are all very affordable. But the authentic texture of handcrafted work has become incredibly precious today."
That simplicity is part of fanlihua's appeal. To Li, the craft does not need elaborate materials or complicated technology to impress people. Its power comes from the surprise of transformation — and from the warmth carried in something made by hand.
"If we can introduce this uniquely Chinese craft to more foreign friends, I believe they will appreciate the down-to-earth wisdom behind it, just as we do," she said.
(Source: China Daily)
Editor: Wang Shasha
