The bamboo hat is made of bamboo, bamboo leaves, oil paper, etc., and is used as a production and living tool to protect against wind and rain. According to the "Yongxin County Annals", the production of bamboo hats in Yongxin Nanxiang began in the ninth year of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty (204 AD). It has a long history, fine workmanship, low cost, lightness and durability. It is the crystallization of the wisdom of generations of bamboo hat-making craftsmen in Yongxin Nanxiang who have lived in mountainous areas for a long time, are hardworking, brave and creative. "Wear a small bamboo hat on your head to protect you from rain, wind and sun. You are not afraid of all kinds of difficulties and dangers, and you can completely defeat the reactionaries." The singing of red ballads has made Yongxin Nanxiang bamboo hats famous for supporting the Red Army. In 1927, Mao Zedong led the Autumn Harvest Uprising troops into Yongxin Sanwan. In order to support the Red Army, the people of Nanxiang mobilized many bamboo hat weaving experts to weave tens of thousands of bamboo hats and gave them to the Red Army soldiers to protect them from the sun and rain. Therefore, the bamboo hats in Nanxiang are also called "Red Army bamboo hats." It has accompanied the Chinese people's revolutionary cause, the Long March, the Anti-Japanese War, and the liberation. It has been in the Museum of the History of the Chinese Revolution, becoming a living example of the Red Army spirit. The craftsmanship of the Yongxin Red Army bamboo hat, from the selection of raw materials to the processing of finished products, requires many processes. The bamboo used to make bamboo hats is generally made of white bamboo grown on the mountain, which is tender and smooth, with a high rate of raw bamboo strips, and the woven mold is durable. The main production processes are: "splitting bamboo strips", "weaving molds", "cloud knives", "sticking oil paper", "clamping bamboo leaves", "sticking words", "binding edges", "topping", etc. Yongxin is mountainous and has been rich in bamboo and wood since ancient times. The mountainous area around Nanxiang (now the five towns of Caifeng, Yange, Zhongzhong, Longyuankou, and Sanwan) can be called a sea of bamboo, with all kinds of bamboos all over the mountains and fields, covering the sky and the earth. The rich bamboo resources provide Nanxiang people with an inexhaustible supply of high-quality and low-cost raw materials for making bamboo hats, which promotes the birth of the Nanxiang bamboo hat making technique with distinctive local characteristics (that is, what people now call "Red Army bamboo hats"). The history of Nanxiang people making bamboo hats is very long. The Yongxin County Chronicles states that "the production of bamboo hats in Nanxiang began in the Eastern Han Dynasty." Based on this, it is estimated that it is more than 2,000 years old. The most famous bamboo hat making areas in Nanxiang are Panzhong Village, Huangqi Village, Nantang Village, etc. in Longyuankou Town. It is said that only the Li family mastered this technique and engaged in production. With the continuous increase in population and the increasing sales of products, seven or eight families with big surnames such as Li, Wu, and Yin have learned the production technique, and later it quickly spread to the five major towns in Nanxiang. It is said that at that time, weaving bamboo hats became popular in Nanxiang. From the elderly in their eighties and nineties to children in their sevens and eights, almost everyone could weave them. Moreover, the weaving skills were constantly improving, the workmanship became more and more refined, and the bamboo hats became thinner, stronger, and more beautiful. In the mountainous areas of Nanxiang, where farming is the main industry, weaving bamboo hats has become the main sideline of local farmers in the winter idle season every year, and has become an indispensable and important means of making a living for every household. After the autumn harvest every year, people would invite each other to go up the mountain to cut bamboo and collect bamboo leaves. Then the men would cut and scrape bamboo strips, the elderly and women would weave, and the children of seven or eight years old would help to sort and spread the bamboo leaves. The whole family would be mobilized and have fun. Everyone worked tirelessly for the whole winter, and the woven bamboo hats were neatly stacked at home. After the beginning of spring in the following year, they would pick up the bamboo hats and rush to the market to sell them on market days. It was in 1927 that the bamboo hats in Nanxiang, Yongxin, were affectionately called "Red Army bamboo hats". When Chairman Mao led the Autumn Harvest Uprising troops to Yongxin Sanwan to establish the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Base, the people of Nanxiang mobilized all to support the Red Army, fought all night, wove a large number of triangular flat-top hats, and decorated them with bright red five-stars and the words "Long Live the Red Army", and gave one to each Red Army soldier, which was very popular. The strong support of the villagers inspired the soldiers and boosted their morale. Since then, this Nanxiang hat has become a regular equipment of the Red Army and soon evolved into a specific identification of the Red Army soldiers. The soldiers and civilians in the base area also composed a ballad to sing: "Wear a small hat on your head to shelter from rain, wind and sun, and you are not afraid of thousands of difficulties and dangers, and completely defeat the reactionaries." Later, Comrade Ren Bishi, then a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the Hunan-Jiangxi Provincial Committee, proposed to name this kind of hat in Yongxin Nanxiang as the "Red Army Hat". After the founding of New China, the People's Army did not forget the hard times in Jinggangshan and the strong support of the people of Yongxin Nanxiang, and sent the Red Army hat to the Museum of the Chinese Revolution for permanent collection, publicity and display. Historically, the economy of the mountainous areas in Nanxiang has always been relatively backward. In addition to cultivating a few acres of thin land, the only sideline that can make money is weaving bamboo hats. Therefore, until a long period after liberation, the production of bamboo hats has never stopped in the entire Nanxiang. Since the reform and opening up, with the improvement of people's living standards, changes in production methods and the emergence of various new rain gear, the market demand for bamboo hats has rapidly decreased. In the vast urban and rural areas, the bamboo hats made by Nanxiang people have become the habitual tools of a very small number of old farmers and the collections of some foreign tourists for curiosity, nostalgia, decoration and appreciation. The bamboo hat manufacturing industry in Nanxiang is in serious danger, and the precious Red Army bamboo hat making skills are in danger of being lost.