As computer and Internet technology blossomed across the country from the mid-1990s on, Tang Yan, an employee of an Internet company in Beijing’s Zhongguancun, a major tech hub in the capital’s Haidian District, gave up a promising career to save an almost lost art—that of the juanren or “Beijing silk figurine.”
After decades of undivided devotion to the craft, Tang now runs her own Beijing silk figurine product brand.
“I fell in love with Beijing silk figurines at first sight. The elegant gestures, the smooth hair, the subtle accessories…” Tang told Beijing Review. “I had a few Barbie dolls back then and I remember telling myself: This is the Barbie of China.”
A big fan of dolls, Tang’s
