Chen Xianyue

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Chen Xianyue, Female, Dong, from Jinping, Guizhou, is a fourth-batch national representative bearer of Dong Embroidery (Ⅶ-107). The tradition is documented in Jinping, Guizhou. Within the regional tradition and school record of Dong Embroidery in Jinping, Guizhou: The local terrain is crisscrossed by valleys, with luxuriant forests; the folkways are simple and unsophisticated, and there are distinctive local customs and practices. There are no explicit written records of Dong embroidery. Stele inscriptions and legends from the Pingqiu area date the popularity of "panzhou rolled-edge embroidery" back to the Ming and Qing periods; for generations it was passed down from mother to daughter within Dong families, and embroidered pieces circulated with the festivals and marriages of the Dong villages.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Dong, born in April 1964 in Jinping County, Guizhou Province. Both her maternal grandmother and her mother were accomplished Dong embroiderers in the locality. She is particularly skilled in coiled-core rolled-edge embroidery (panzhou gunbian xiu); the baby carriers, girls' waistbands, calf leggings, girls' shawls, silver baby hats and Dong women's festival dress that she makes are deeply admired by the local people. Within the documented technical tradition of Dong Embroidery in Jinping, Guizhou: The most representative variety of Dong embroidery is "panzhou rolled-edge embroidery"; the pieces made by Dong women of Pingqiu Town, Jinping County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, and the surrounding area are the most famous. Pingqiu Town lies at the junction of the southern and northern parts of the Dong cultural community of Guizhou and is one of the birthplaces of northern Dong culture. Pingqiu was originally called Ashu, a transliteration from the Dong language; in the late Ming it was renamed Pingqiu, meaning "things vanish naturally." According to local stele inscriptions and legends, "panzhou rolled-edge embroidery" was already popular in the Ming and Qing periods; its basic stitch method combines two embroidery techniques: "panzhou stitch" and "rolled-edge stitch." In "panzhou stitch," a colored silk thread is taken as the "lead thread" (that is, the axis thread); two more colored silk threads are then tightly twisted together to form a thicker, pre-made two-in-one embroidery thread, also called the "coiled thread." When embroidering, the "lead thread" is stitched upward from the underside of the pattern and pulled straight; the "coiled thread" is looped once around the root of the "lead thread" and pulled tight; this process is repeated to embroider the outline of the pattern — this is "panzhou stitch." "Rolled-edge stitch" takes a white yarn thread as the "lead thread"; two more white yarn threads are tightly twisted together, and this two-in-one white thread is then tightly wound around the "lead thread" to form a thicker three-in-one embroidery thread, which is stitched (rolled) around the outline of the "panzhou stitch" pattern — this is "rolled-edge stitch." Ordinary embroidered pieces are composed of three lines of "panzhou stitch" and one of "rolled-edge stitch," with colored threads filled inside the pattern outline in the same manner. The remaining parts are usually embroidered with flat stitch, cross-stitch, random stitch, skip stitch and similar techniques. With its effect of shallow relief, "panzhou rolled-edge embroidery" is a representative work of Dong embroidery art, with distinct ethnic character. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The coiling-axis stitch": One coloured thread becomes the axis while two others are wound into a thicker ready thread, looped and tightened at the base of each outline. "The rolled-border stitch": A white thread is wrapped with two others into a triple cord and rolled as a border around the coiled outline. "Three coils and one rolled edge": A typical piece uses three coiled passes and one rolled edge, filled with coloured thread and finished with flat, counted, random or skip stitching for a low-relief effect. "Pingqiu and its old name Ashu": Pingqiu sits where the southern and northern Dong cultural areas meet; once called Ashu in Dong, it was renamed in the late Ming and remains a wooded, old-fashioned valley town.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

She is a national representative bearer of Dong embroidery, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. She began learning embroidery from her mother at the age of twelve and by fourteen had mastered all the embroidery skills her mother had taught her, becoming an expert embroiderer. She is devoted to training successors for Dong embroidery; she has trained eighty people, has taken on six apprentices, and has passed her skills on to younger generations of embroidery enthusiasts.

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. Chen Xianyue · National Representative Bearer Archive