TIANJIN: Since China released a plan of pairing-up support for Hubei, over half of China’s provincial-level regions aided the cities in the once hardest-hit province during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Tianjin, a port city in northern China, has paired up with Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, where a cluster of many Tujia people from one of China’s 55 ethnic minority groups live. The Tianjin medical team, which had been working around the clock for over half a month in Enshi, received a special gift of 43 pairs of red and blue cloth shoes made of Tujia brocade, a traditional textile handicraft.
The uppers of the shoes were decorated with auspicious birds of the Tujia ethnic group in geometric shape, representing a token of good fortune. Tian Ruolan, who oversees a Tujia brocade mill in Enshi, said it would take 40 to 50 procedures to make a pair of cloth shoes with the ethnic handicraft, which are regarded as gifts for the most distinguished guests in Tujia culture. “I got an anonymous phone call on the last day of February, with someone asking to buy 43 pairs of cloth shoes for Tianjin medics along with a handwriting letter,” she recalled.
– The Daily Mail-People’s Daily News exchange item
