The tobacco pouch is usually made by a wife for her husband or by a maid for her lover. It is interesting that every tobacco pouch is tied with a small wooden “gourd,” which is very elaborate and is carved with rich patterns. The primary function of the gourd-shaped fastener is to prevent one from losing the pouch, because it is harder for the 2-inch-long fastener to slip from the seam between the waist and the cloth belt the former Manchu people used.

Whether male or female, young or old, all Manchu people are fond of wearing a pouch, although they differ on their position and way of wearing it. Manchu men wear pouches at the waist, secured on the belt together with their knives, fan pouches and flints. Women tie their pouches to the second button of their cheong-sam, a traditional Manchu dress, and some younger ones even put them together with a mirror, a jade pendant or other odds and ends.

On every Dragon Boat Festival, it is a tradition to put on a new pouch filled with realgar and mugwort, important herbs of Chinese medicine. Some people fasten it with comb and five venomous animals carved in wood, which is said to be a talisman that can keep out evil spirits and bring happiness and good luck. Thus, pouches are popular good-luck gifts for relatives at festival events.