Cai Saihua

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Cai Saihua, Female, Han, from Chaozhou, Guangdong, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Drawn-work Embroidery (Ⅶ-112). The tradition is documented in Chaozhou, Guangdong. Within the regional tradition and school record of Drawn-work Embroidery in Chaozhou, Guangdong: Chaozhou drawnwork initially spread within the urban area of Chaozhou. With the growth of export sales, it extended to rural market towns along both banks of the Han River, the Chao'an plain, the Phoenix Mountain area, and the Huanggang River basin. Some varieties and techniques gradually radiated to Jieyang City, Chenghai District of Shantou, and Chaonan in eastern Guangdong, as well as to Fujian, Jiangxi, and Hunan. In the 1860s, Chaozhou in Guangdong was opened as a treaty port. The Western drawn-thread (drawnwork) embroidery techniques introduced from abroad combined with local embroidery skills, giving rise to Chaozhou drawnwork.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Han ethnicity, born in January 1958, a native of Chaozhou, Guangdong Province. She is a senior arts and crafts artist. From the age of six she learned drawn-work embroidery from her mother, Cai Sumei. Over more than forty years in the craft she has mastered the entire repertoire of Chaozhou drawn-work embroidery techniques. She has thrown herself actively into transmitting Chaozhou drawn-work techniques, attaches importance to teaching by word and example, has formally accepted more than ten disciples, and has trained more than two hundred skilled drawn-work workers. Within the documented technical tradition of Drawn-work Embroidery in Chaozhou, Guangdong: Drawnwork is an applied art in which special tools are used to apply various artistic treatments to suitable fabrics and yarns according to patterns and designs. Chaozhou drawnwork comprises more than 40 categories of products, including tablecloths, quilt and pillowcases, towels, screens, and hanging ornaments, which fall into four groups: embroidery, drawn-thread work, appliqué and patching, and weaving. Nearly 400 stitch and craft types are employed across the product range; the commonly used ones total 108 stitches in nine major categories, including laid-thread embroidery, flat embroidery, mixed-needle embroidery, carved-twist embroidery, drawn-thread embroidery, openwork embroidery, patched-and-inlaid embroidery, lace embroidery, and combined treatments. All product types, crafts, and stitches are executed under a complete set of strict technical requirements and quality standards, ensuring that drawnwork products reach a high standard of refinement, precision, and elegance. The Chaozhou drawnwork production process runs from pattern design to completion through three major stages and 38 process steps: in the early stage, preliminary design, finalizing the draft, measuring the cloth and brushing on the design, coloring the design, and dyeing the yarns; in the middle stage, embroidery by female artisans; and in the late stage, washing and pressing treatments. Its compositions are distinctive, its stitches fine and delicate, its coloring light and elegant, and its specifications complete; it is both beautiful and practical. It emphasizes the organic combination of point, line, and plane, with well-judged density in the layout; circular, oval, fan-shaped, square, and prismatic forms each have their own character. Techniques of standalone motifs as well as continuous and symmetrical compositions are applied with ease, cloth widths are joined in orderly variations, and solid and void set one another off. It is a widely popular household item and craft product, exported to nearly 100 countries and regions around the world. Chaozhou drawnwork has a long history with deep roots. During the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty, Chaozhou folk artists and embroiderers began to integrate the embroidery patterns and drawn-thread crafts introduced from the West with traditional embroidery techniques. Through generations of absorption and innovation and the unbroken transmission of embroiderers, they developed the new out of the old to form a distinctive folk handicraft. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival Record of Process Steps": The Chaozhou drawnwork production process runs from pattern design to completion through three major stages and 38 process steps: in the early stage, preliminary design, finalizing the draft, measuring the cloth and brushing on the design, coloring the design, and dyeing the yarns; in the middle stage, embroidery by female artisans; and in the late stage, washing and pressing treatments.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Drawn-work Embroidery (Chaozhou Drawn-work), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. The organdy tablecloth Two Phoenixes Facing Peonies, which she helped create, won a gold medal at the 32nd Munich International Handicrafts Fair in 1980 and the Golden Cup Award of the China Arts and Crafts Hundred Flowers Awards in 1981; the double-sided embroidery screen Purple Clouds Revealing Verdure won a gold award of the China Arts and Crafts Cultural Creativity Award. She is highly representative and influential within the industry.

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. Cai Saihua · National Representative Bearer Archive