According to legend, the velvet flower craft began in the Tang Dynasty, and by the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were professional workshops in Nanjing, which were mostly sold locally except for the palace style. The production and sales of velvet flowers are generally front shops and back workshops, and most of the workers are women from the same door. In the past, the shops in Sanshan Street and Confucius Temple were mostly traditional old shops, each with its own special products. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, velvet flower production was very prosperous, and the area from Sanshan Street to Changle Road in Nanjing was once called "Flower Market Street". In 1930s and 1940s, the producers of Nanjing velvet flowers were mainly distributed on the east and west sides of the south gate of the city, mainly in Maxiang, Tongfang and Shangfuqiao. There are about 40 households in the city, and there are three famous merchants in Maxiang: Ke Hengtai, Zhang Yitai and Ma Rongxing. Among them, Wu Changquan, who was born in a velvet family and engaged in velvet crafts for six generations, was Zhang Yitai's first apprentice. Zhou Jiafeng, a famous veteran velvet flower artist, 12 years old went to Nanjing to study art from Longdu, Ningjiang, and also studied under Wu Changquan in Zhangyitai. At the same time, Zhou Jiafeng's famous velvet artist is Wang Jiatai of Yangzhou velvet family.
1956, cashmere artists headed by Zhou Jiafeng and Wang Jiatai established Nanjing Yimei cashmere production cooperative, which mainly produces cashmere. Zhou Jiafeng's "Dragon Boat", "Dragon and Phoenix Loves Candle" and "Phoenix Crown" and other velvet flowers have typical artistic styles of Ming Dynasty, and are now collected by Nanjing Folk Museum.
Ronghua is homophonic "Rong", which means good luck and can add festive atmosphere. So whenever "one thing and three festivals" (that is, wedding, Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival), people generally use velvet flowers as decoration.
The theme of Nanjing velvet flower is mainly flowers, birds, fish and insects. The colors are mainly red and pink, supplemented by medium green and decorated with yellow. The contrast is strong, bright and rich. The pattern is mainly small and medium-sized velvet strips, which are thick and thin, symmetrical and harmonious. In terms of varieties, Nanjing velvet flowers can be divided into several categories, such as sideburns, hat flowers, brooches, cover flowers, play flowers and so on. Sideburns are the most popular.
With the passage of time and the disintegration of Nanjing Flower Factory, the velvet flower gradually faded out of people's sight and lost its living space. The velvet flower craft is facing the situation of endangered skills and lack of successors. At present, there are only a handful of velvet artists, and their lives are rather embarrassing. In order to revive this traditional skill, in 2007, Nanjing Folk Museum and Gulou District Cultural Bureau jointly declared the intangible cultural heritage list of Jiangsu Province for Nanjing velvet flower making skill, which was successful. The technique of making velvet flowers was listed in the first batch of intangible cultural heritage in Jiangsu Province by the People's Government of Jiangsu Province. Nanjing Folk Museum will set up a platform to display the velvet flower skills, so that the audience can understand the historical origin, artistic characteristics, inheritance artists and other contents of the velvet flower technology, and teach young people the traditional velvet flower production technology, and finally achieve the purpose of inheritance.