This quivering hairpin was fashioned using the now lost craft of making artificial flowers by hand, a thriving industry in Yangzhou in the 18th century that employed thousands of workers, male and female. The flowers were made of paper derived from the pith of the plant, known as tongcao (Tetrapanax papyrifer), which was native to southern China and Taiwan. The white pith paper was thin, brittle and translucent; when damp, it became flexible and could be moulded into shapes that would remain after drying. It could also be easily to dyed to create realistic looking petals. Chinese women, regardless of their age and class, had a long tradition of wearing natural or artificial flowers. The fashion of wearing tongcao flowers was so popular that an imperial workshop was set up in 1723 to produce them exclusively for court use.