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Being the token of love between young men and women, as well as the mascot of the Zhuang nationality, the embroidery ball is a very unique tourist handicraft of Guangxi. The embroidery ball is made of silk cloth which mainly has three types of background colors: red, yellow and green. The ball’s pattern indicates the connection of twelve petals; each petal represents one month in a year and has a mascot on it. A mascot could be a plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, swallow, dragon or phoenix. All of these symbols represent reunion and eternal happiness. In order to make the ball weightier, beans, millet, cotton seed or corn seed are wrapped inside the ball. These cereal seeds have a profound meaning in that this year would have “bumper crops”.

As a love gift, throwing an embroidery ball is a traditional game of the Zhuangs. During the time of the Spring Festival and the Zhuang Nationality Song Festival, the youth of the Zhuangs will invite each other to the village side or the bank of the river. They will then divide themselves into male and the female sides. Before the girls throw their embroidery balls to the boys, they would like to get some general information about the boys through singing antiphonal songs. Normally the girls sing the songs with questions in the lyrics first, and then the boys sing back with answers. When they sing at the most exciting moment, the girls begin to throw their balls to the boys whom they set their minds on. The boys are supposed to have a quick reaction and catch the balls correctly. After a few times, if the boys have also set their minds on the girls, they will tie their gifts, such as silver ornaments or coins, to the balls and throw them back to the girls. If the girl accepts the gift, it means the girl agrees to have a date with the boy after the game.

In recent years, throwing embroidery balls is still a popular game among the Zhuangs. The fine embroidered ball as a souvenir can be found anywhere in the Zhuang area and you can get a nice one within 30 RMB from the stalls.