介绍:
Liu Guijuan, a famous Peking Opera performer, has become the center of controversy after showing off a kingfisher feather headdress, which is called "Diancui" on Sina Weibo.
Liu posted her headdress, explaining the iridescent blue feathers decorated on the headdress were taken from 80 kingfishers and further processed to maintain their color and gloss.
She also expressed her wish of buying the best headdress made from even more kingfishers.
Bird lovers and netizens accused her for neglecting the cruelty inflicted on the birds.
Liu later deleted her original post.
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Note:
- Liu is a member of the People&`&s Political Consultative Conference of Tianjin city, an advisory body, and enjoys a special allowance granted by the State Council, China&`&s cabinet, as recognition of her career achievements.
- To make Diancui, the feathers have to been taken from living kingfishers as it is said the color of the feathers would fade very soon after the birds&`& death. Only 28 feathers of one kingfisher can be used for this.
- Diancui was once banned in the Song Dynasty, which is about a thousand years ago, as it is too cruel. Zhao Kuangyi, the first emperor of the Song Dynasty even educated his daughter princess Yongqing not to use such decorations, saying this may cause massive killing of birds if women across the country followed the princess as a fashion.
- Diancui was extremely popular in the Qing Dynasty and lots of kingfishers were killed. The last workshop producing Diancui closed because there were no kingfisher feathers any more in the market.
- In October 2014, police in Guangdong caught about 60 thousand dead bodies of birds illegally being transported as cooked food. Many of them are kingfishers.
