Dai Mingjiao
Mastery, Signature Works & Repertoire
Female, of Han ethnicity, born in 1922, a native of Shanghai. Dai Mingjiao developed a deep love of embroidery from childhood. In the Gu embroidery class of the Songyun Girls' School she systematically studied the fundamentals of embroidery and fine art, and gained a comprehensive command of the basic skills and techniques of Gu embroidery. Gu embroidery excels at rendering the physical structure of images through a wide range of stitches; the work is time-consuming, and even a small piece could take six months to complete. Dai Mingjiao embroidered more than forty works. She also learned double-sided embroidery from Suzhou embroidery, completing Qun Yu Xi Zao Tu (Fish Sporting among Algae), the first double-sided work in the history of Gu embroidery. Dai Mingjiao played a vital linking role in the transmission of the Gu embroidery craft, enabling the art, then on the verge of being lost, to survive and be passed on in Songjiang, and she trained a group of successors to Gu embroidery. Two essays were compiled from her oral accounts as recorded and organized by her son: Guxiu Zhenfa Chutan (A Preliminary Study of Gu Embroidery Stitches) and Qingtan Guxiu de Xiuhua Guanxi ji Zhanwang (A Brief Discussion of the Relationship between Embroidery and Painting in Gu Embroidery, and Its Prospects). Her representative works include Riben Shinü Tu (Japanese Beauty), Hongliao Shuiqin (Waterfowl among Red Knotweed), and Budai Heshang (Cloth-Bag Monk), among others.
Honors & Recognition
National representative bearer of Guxiu, a first-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.
References & Archival Sources
Representative Items of This Bearer
- Guxiu Ⅶ-17
Profile
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