Baby-Carrying Belts

This baby sling is made from homespun cloth, which has been decorated with embroidered designs depicting fish and birds.

This technique is extremely complex, and involves stitching together a mosaic of small triangles of colored cloth.

This baby-carrying belt is made of homespun cloth with special embroidery called "Sha Xiu" on it.

It includes traditional Miao motifs, such as "siblings getting married", "butterfly mother", and "playing the lusheng to celebrate the wedding of the siblings"...

... symbolizing a request to the ancestors to blessing the children with safety and happiness.

This baby sling is embroidered with patterns motifs of sunflowers, pomegranates, and two phoenixes playing around peonies symbolizing wealth and good luck.

It is also decorated with seashells and red tassels to ward of evil.

This sling for carrying a baby is also called a back wrap, or baby carrier.

It is decorated with phoenix, peony, and pomegranate motifs using flat embroidery, pigtail embroidery, and locking stitch techniques. It is used both to swaddle the baby and to wear over the mother's shoulder.

Slings like this were in common use among a number of ethnic groups in southwestern China, including the Dong, the Miao, the Dai and the Bai.

This purple baby sling is made of a piece of white cloth embroidered with animal and plant motifs such as birds, fish and pomegranates symbolizing happiness, blessing and fertility.

This is a traditional Miao baby sling embroidered with a motif of two pheonixes playing around a peony flower.

This is a baby sling made of black linen decorated using a special method of embroidery. The pattern on the upper center represents the moon; and the pattern in the middle depicts two dragons playing with a pearl, and alludes to the Miao folktale of a marriage between a brother and sister.

The pattern on the lower center represents the sun, underneath which is a large butterfly design composed of two phoenixes playing with a peony. This style of embroidery is called "taoxiu".