On display at The George Washington University Textile Museum’s new animal-themed textiles exhibit.
>Infant mortality was high in pre-modern China, so families dressed their children in clothing with propitious motifs thought to repel evil and attract good fortune. Since a child's head was thought to be a particularly vulnerable area of their body, hats and collars often featured auspicious imagery.
The four-lobed collar depicts bats. In Mandarin Chinese, "bat" is pronounced "bianfú," the second character of which is a homophone for "good fortune," so bats symbolize blessings and happiness. The other collar is in the shape of a pig.
An important food source and one of the twelve animals of the zodiac, pigs symbolize prosperity and good luck.<