|
Traditional
Toys: Toys of the Past
I Remember
Making My Own Shuttlecocks
Qiao-Hong
Su from Singapore
|
Drawing
by Qiau-Hong
Sun
Because I liked to play this kind of game
very much, the shuttlecock became my good
friend who always accompanied me in the
long winter.
|
|
In
my memory, playing the shuttlecock game was one of
my favorite things during my childhood. The
shuttlecocks I played were not used for playing
badminton game; they were just used for playing by
themselves.
My
hometown is in northeast China where the winter is
very long—almost five to six months. Playing
the shuttlecock outside was the main game in the
winter. Because I liked to play this kind of game
very much, the shuttlecock became my good friend
who always accompanied me in the long
winter.
How
the game was played
Actually, this game was very simple. In a word, it
just was played by a person who kicked the
shuttlecock with his or her foot (right foot or
left foot) and kept it from dropping down on the
ground as long as possible. Depending on different
interests, the player could kick the shuttlecock
with different parts of his or her foot (of course,
the player wore shoes—very common shoes).
Sometimes we were divided into two teams, and each
team had one, two, or more persons. Then we had a
match to see which team could keep playing for a
long time (usually we counted the number of the
kicks). The team that could keep playing much
longer would win.
How I made the shuttlecocks
It was easy to make them by hand. At that time, I
really didn't know where I could buy a shuttlecock.
Therefore, I always made them by hand and by myself
(I didn't realize that they might be a kind of folk
art, so I threw all of them away when I left the
primary school). I used chicken feathers to make
the shuttlecock. Particularly, I preferred to use
cock feathers because of their colors. Sometimes, I
also used some thread, which was made of hemp,
flax, or some similar things to make the
shuttlecock, if I didn't find chicken feathers.
For
the small metal base, I usually chose two or three
ancient Chinese coins with a hole in the middle. I
just put the chicken feathers into the hole of the
base, and then tied them together very well with
thread. This, a simple shuttlecock was ready. That
was very easy, wasn't it?
Return
to: Traditional
Toys
| Children's
Toys Page
| It's
International|
Home
Page
|
