Yu Fuzhen

01 · Lineage & Regional School

After graduating she studied the embroidery of cats under Gu Wenxia and the painting of cats under Cao Kejia, a leading master of the subject in Chinese painting. Within the regional tradition and school record of Suzhou Embroidery in Suzhou, Jiangsu: The place of origin and distribution of Su embroidery is the old city of Suzhou and its suburbs, which in the Ming and Qing dynasties, because commodity embroidery was so developed, had the reputation of an "embroidery market." In the past decade the industry has contracted, and embroidery workshops and artists are now concentrated in downtown Suzhou and around Dongzhu Town and Zhenhu Subdistrict in the High-tech Zone; in Zhenhu, the villages along the shores of Lake Tai still have an embroidery frame in every household. The origins of Su embroidery technique are unknown.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, of Han ethnicity, born in March 1942 in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. She is a senior arts and crafts artist and a Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts. In 1957 she entered the embroidery training class of the Suzhou Embroidery Arts and Crafts Production Cooperative, predecessor of the Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute. She joined the Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute in 1962 and served as head of its embroidery stitch research office. She excels in embroidering cats with fine embroidery, double-sided embroidery, double-sided embroidery with three differing effects and fine random-stitch embroidery; her cats have a sense of fleshy solidity while the fur is soft and smooth and the silk lustre clean. Building on fine embroidery, she was the first to combine fine and random stitches in embroidering cats, so that her works retain the flatness, lustre, evenness and regularity of Suzhou embroidery while gaining the lively lines and rich colour of random-stitch work. Her representative works include the double-sided embroideries White Cat Playing with a Mantis and Two Cats on a Sofa, and the single-sided solid-and-void stitch embroideries Black Cat on a Black Ground and White Cat on a White Ground. Within the documented technical tradition of Suzhou Embroidery in Suzhou, Jiangsu: "Su embroidery" is the abbreviation for Suzhou embroidery, named after the place where it arose; historically it existed widely in the towns and villages of Suzhou. In the past decade the Su embroidery industry has gradually shrunk; it is now concentrated mainly in downtown Suzhou and around Dongzhu Town and Zhenhu Subdistrict in the High-tech Zone. Extant Su embroidery objects dating from the Song dynasty onward reveal the state of development and actual level of Su embroidery technique in different historical periods. For example, fragments of Yuan-dynasty Su embroidery show that at that time one work already employed nine kinds of embroidery stitches; Ming-dynasty embroideries mostly used literati-painting designs and began to form a distinctive style of refined elegance; in the Qing dynasty Su embroidery became an industry, with commodity embroidery extremely developed, so Suzhou gained the reputation of an "embroidery market." During the Daoguang reign, the Suzhou woman Ding Pei summarized embroidery techniques and completed the Embroidery Manual, China's first specialized work on embroidery; in the late Qing and early Republican period, the renowned Su embroidery master Shen Shou created "realistic embroidery" (fangzhen xiu) and in his later years dictated the Xueyi Embroidery Manual, summing up his embroidery experience; in the 1930s the Su embroidery master Yang Shouyu created "random-stitch embroidery" (luanzhen xiu), enriching and expanding the subject matter and content of Su embroidery; in the 1950s the Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute was established, gathering and training large numbers of Su embroidery talents who, on the basis of inheriting traditional stitch methods, researched and created many new embroidery methods and stitches, enabling Su embroidery technique to develop and improve continuously. Since the Ming dynasty Su embroidery has produced masters generation after generation and a profusion of schools; the Su embroidery lineages that still have definite successors and influence today can be divided into three main lines: traditional fine embroidery, the "realistic embroidery" created by Shen Shou, and the "random-stitch embroidery" created by Yang Shouyu. The techniques of these three lineages all have rich and varied adaptability, complete and systematic craft principles, a traditional quality of calligraphy and painting, and strong local color. Su embroidery has always been the most representative craft art of the Suzhou region and is of great value to research in disciplines such as the history of craft art, folklore studies, and women's studies. But with the development of the modern commodity economy and of science and technology, computer embroidery technology has come into general use; under these circumstances the living space of Su embroidery is shrinking day by day. Su embroidery inheritors of superb skill and high-quality Su embroidery artworks are becoming fewer and fewer, and Su embroidery faces a crisis of orderly transmission, urgently requiring rescue and protection. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The three lineages of Su embroidery": Su embroidery today has three living lineages: traditional fine embroidery, Shen Shou's simulated embroidery, and Yang Shouyu's random-stitch embroidery. "Shen Shou and the Xueyi Embroidery Manual": The late-Qing master Shen Shou created simulated embroidery and dictated the Xueyi Embroidery Manual; Ding Pei of Suzhou had already written an embroidery manual in the Daoguang era. "Nine stitches on a Yuan dynasty fragment": Surviving Song-and-later pieces record the craft's development: a Yuan fragment shows nine stitches on one work, while Ming pieces took literati paintings as drafts and formed the fine, elegant style. "The 'embroidery market' and its workshops": In the Qing dynasty Su embroidery became a trade and Suzhou was known as an embroidery market; the Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute was founded in the 1950s.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Suzhou embroidery, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Since founding the Yu Fuzhen Embroidery Art Studio in 2000 she has trained more than ten apprentices, including Lu Hongwei and Wang Lihua.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Yu Fuzhen · National Representative Bearer Archive