Hairy monkeys are a peculiar kind of old Beijing thirty-four cm tall exquisite folk art that people enjoy, also known as "Chinese cicada". Hairy monkeys’ whole bodies are covered with dense brown or white fine hair, and their whole body is slightly transparent. At first glance, they can be thought to be real hairy monkey specimens, but hairy monkeys are nature’s elf. Smart, lively, they reveal a natural appeal. The hairy monkey art takes the monkey’s natural artistic appeal and art to create a perfect combination. It creates one type of exquisite realm of art. Folk art products and hairy monkeys originated in the late Qing Dynasty and is a unique Beijing folk skill. It draws support from the monkey’s naughty and clever character, changing its image according to personifying anthropomorphic art, a vivid record of the ordinary people's emotions and vicissitudes of life.
Hairy monkeys, although the materials used is simple, the production's artistic conception is very clever. They rely on the community’s close observation of various characters and personal perceptions, to object on behalf of the monkey to monkey generations, made into a mix of art in different poses and expressions. In the past, hairy monkeys worked together primarily to reflect on the social sector, popular social customs as much, such as being a barber, digging dung, pouring water, pushing the car, selling candied fruit, a fortune-teller ...... some can even be turned into complete powerful sets of artistic ability works, such as "magistrate touring", "married ranks" and so on. It is designed to allow hairy monkeys to simulate human actions and scenes of life, through a variety of body language, customs and reproduction of Chinese Pop Culture; they are also rich in humor and a witty interpretation of life, happiness, anger, sadness and joy, recording life’s one hundred states; has a strong sense of life with a strong practical significance; and has high economic ornamental and collectible value.
What are the raw materials of hairy monkeys? Originally, hairy monkeys’ whole bodies were made of medicine. Its limbs are made with cicada limbs, the body is another herb - Magnolia, which is the magnolia flower bud that matures in autumn. The outer layer is made of thick brown hair, in order to protect the flower winter coat. When winter turns to spring, the fur gradually recedes slowly and begins to grow into a blossoming bud of beautiful magnolia. This results in a flurry flowery bud, and the body is very similar to monkeys, something really magical. Hairy monkeys’ heads are made of the cicada's head, coinciding with the matching buds. Sometimes monkeys are adorned with hats, which is invariably made with Chinese medicine, called Akebia. Several parts are bonded together, called Baiji, also another type of Chinese medicine, which is really natural and magical. It seems that the pioneer of hairy monkeys was well acquainted with traditional Chinese medicine, and has close access to Chinese herbal medicine.
Historical Story
According to legend, during the Qing Dynasty (1861-1875), at Beijing’s Xuanwumen Wai Avenue Horse Market Street, there was a pharmacy called "Nan Qing Ren Tang". The shopkeepers were overbearing, often for no reason beat and scolded his partner, but everyone did not dare to speak up. One day a salesclerk of a drug store in Beijing was bored and had nothing to do. In the evening, he began fiddling around with some Chinese medicines. He made a monkey's head with cicada slough heads, its body with magnolia flower buds after living through the winter and its limbs with cicada slough claws. A hairy monkey was inadvertently born. The boss of the drugstore found the "creation" very interesting. From then on, these ingredients were wrapped together for sale as "monkey materials" and making "hairy monkeys" were handed down as a folk handicraft.
