Manchu Pouch: Fadu

For thousands years, a charming love song called “embroidery pouch” was widespread in the northern China, which tells of a young wife who, in the embroidery of a pouch she makes for her husband, expresses her love for her husband and sadness at being separated from him.

Many ethnic groups have the custom of wearing a pouch. Among these ethnic groups, the Manchu people wear pouches as part of their traditional costume, and the Manchu pouch, called “fadu” in Manchu, is quite unique with ethnic flavor.

The forefathers of the Manchu people lived a hunting life, hunting through thickly forested mountains and dealing with birds and beasts, so they wore a kind of bag made of hide at the waist, which was secured on the belt for carrying food. Later, they went outside the mountains and began an agricultural life, so the bag developed into a small and delicate accouterment, which could only contain sweetmeats. Women used small pieces of silk and satin to sew the bag and embroider it with flower and bird patterns. This is the origin of the Manchu pouch. Also, it is used for carrying perfume and tobacco.

The perfume pouch is also a love token for Manchu youths. Once two youths fall in love with each other, the girl gives the boy a handmade perfume pouch. It is impossible to find out when the perfume pouch became a pledge of romantic love. But it is a certainty that the woman’s sincere love is fully reflected in the pouch.

The tobacco pouch is usually made by a wife for her husband or by a maid for her lover. It is interesting that every tobacco pouch is tied with a small wooden “gourd,” which is very elaborate and is carved with rich patterns. The primary function of the gourd-shaped fastener is to prevent one from losing the pouch, because it is harder for the 2-inch-long fastener to slip from the seam between the waist and the cloth belt the former Manchu people used.

Whether male or female, young or old, all Manchu people are fond of wearing a pouch, although they differ on their position and way of wearing it. Manchu men wear pouches at the waist, secured on the belt together with their knives, fan pouches and flints. Women tie their pouches to the second button of their cheong-sam, a traditional Manchu dress, and some younger ones even put them together with a mirror, a jade pendant or other odds and ends.

On every Dragon Boat Festival, it is a tradition to put on a new pouch filled with realgar and mugwort, important herbs of Chinese medicine. Some people fasten it with comb and five venomous animals carved in wood, which is said to be a talisman that can keep out evil spirits and bring happiness and good luck. Thus, pouches are popular good-luck gifts for relatives at festival events.