This research examines challenges in translating traditional art to modern textile design, indicating pathways for innovative development.
As a quintessential representation of Chinese folk art, tiger-head shoes and hats embody cultural connotations of blessing and warding off evil, alongside exquisite craftsmanship. Their cultural DNA, encompassing symbolic forms, color systems, and artisanal wisdom, provides abundant creative resources for modern textile design. This paper adopts the cultural DNA theory as its core perspective. Through a combination of literature review, case analysis, and design practice, it systematically examines the composition of the cultural DNA of tiger-head shoes and hats. It analyzes the practical challenges and core demands in their modern translation within textile design, constructing a four-stage translation mechanism of “DNA Extraction – Semantic Decoding – Design Reconstruction – Application Realization.” The feasibility and effectiveness of this mechanism are validated through design practice. This research aims to provide theoretical support and practical pathways for the modern design transformation of traditional folk art, promoting the enhancement of cultural depth and innovative development in textile design.
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Lu et al. (2025) studied this question.