A girl poses for a photo with a rat doll at the Nantong Blue Calico Museum on Jan 3. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

To welcome the upcoming Year of the Rat, the Nantong Blue Calico Museum in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, released a series of rat mascots made of blue calico cloth on Jan 3.

The mascots attracted many visitors to the museum the day they were launched. They will also make a debut in Beijing during a Spring Festival gala for the country's literary and art circles on Jan 8.

The mascots were designed by Wu Lingshu, daughter of the museum's curator, Wu Yuanxin. Wu Yuanxin is one of the first inheritors of state-level intangible cultural heritage items and head of the Blue Calico Cloth Art Institute at Nantong University.

His daughter and her husband, inspired by Wu, also devoted themselves to the development of the ancient art form.

Nantong blue calico cloth was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage item in May 2006, and the city has since become known for the traditional craft.