Miaoxiu

01 · Historical Records

The history of Leishan Miao embroidery is bound up with the migration memory of the Miao people. According to historical records, the Jiuli tribe of Miao ancestors originally lived in the Yellow River valley; repeatedly displaced by warfare, they moved west and south, and some branches entered what is now Guizhou, one of which settled around Leigong Mountain in southeastern Guizhou. Miao people make up 83.6 percent of the population of Leishan County, and the thousand-household Miao villages of Xijiang, Langde and Datang still preserve the four traditional costume types of long skirt, medium skirt, short skirt and extra-short skirt, together with their corresponding embroidery techniques.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Miao embroidery refers to the embroidery technique passed down among the Miao people. Miao embroidery as practiced in Leishan County, Guiyang and Jianhe County in Guizhou Province has different forms and styles. Leishan County, in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture of Guizhou Province, lies in southeastern Guizhou and is one of the main concentrations of the Miao people; Miao people make up 83.6 percent of the county's total population. The dress of the Leishan Miao still retains its unadulterated traditional style, and its exquisite embroidery and dazzling silver ornaments are cause for admiration. By structure and style, Leishan Miao dress falls mainly into four types: long skirt, medium skirt, short skirt and extra-short skirt, also called the Xijiang, Yemeng, Gongtong and Datang types. The making of Leishan Miao dress involves distinctive techniques and highly representative forms; some are unique to Leishan, while others also exist elsewhere but are distributed mainly within Leishan County. The embroidery techniques associated with these forms are also distinctive, such as double-needle lock stitch, crepe embroidery, braid embroidery and silk-floss appliqué; although they exist elsewhere as well, in terms of technique Leishan Miao embroidery has stronger characteristics and a greater variety of methods. In the form and modelling of its patterns, Leishan Miao embroidery makes extensive use of deformation and exaggeration, and boldly employs multi-dimensional three-dimensional modelling, the composite device of shape-within-shape, and expressive techniques such as simile, allusion, metaphor and symbolism, reflecting an aesthetic sensibility with a distinctive ethnic style. The Huaxi Miao cross-stitch technique of Guiyang is fairly representative of Miao embroidery techniques in Guizhou. This branch of the Miao originally dressed itself mainly with batik; later, finding that cross-stitch offered richer color and stronger expressive power, they began to work cross-stitch over the ground patterns of the batik, and cross-stitch gradually emerged from batik to form a distinctive method of expression and artistic language. Common cross-stitch patterns include pig's-trotter forks, ox-trotter forks, ox heads, sheep heads, dog heads, ice-and-snow flowers, prickly-pear flowers, duckweed, lotus flowers, rice ears, buckwheat flowers, bronze drums, lanterns, silver forks, copper coins, the sun, frogs, water bugs, crabs, swallows, pavilions, fields and gardens, bridges, rivers and the Miao king's seal. Huaxi Miao cross-stitch serves to remember ancestors, record history, express love and beautify the wearer, and at the same time is strongly decorative. Using cross-stitch as its basic stitch, counting threads as it stitches and working without a drawn draft, the special technique of picking from the back so that the front shows the pattern makes each cross-stitch work more beautiful and exquisite. The artistic style of Huaxi Miao cross-stitch can be divided into early, middle and late periods. Before 1900 is the early period, in which the ground cloth was hand-woven dark-grey linen, the coloring was simple and elegant with silver tones predominating, white was set off by small areas of color, compositions were rigorous, and the patterns had a geometric, formulaic character. From 1900 to 1966 is the middle period, in which the ground cloth was still mostly dark-grey linen with a little homespun dark-grey cotton, the coloring was warm and gorgeous with red tones predominating, worked with yellow, green and white silk threads; compositions were livelier than in the earlier period and the patterns were richer. After 1967 is the late period, in which the color and texture of the ground cloth became more varied, adding machine-woven cloth in red, blue, yellow, white and black, and even plastic window screen and coarse sackcloth as grounds; besides silk thread, the colored threads used for cross-stitching came to include stranded cotton and wool, compositions became freer and patterns more diverse, and some artisans began to imitate the realistic patterns on modern textiles in their cross-stitch. Because the Miao have no script of their own, Huaxi Miao cross-stitch has become a carrier of the people's history and legends, and the distinctive cross-stitch guantou garment has become an identifying mark and symbol of this branch of the Miao. Cross-stitch is widely used in the daily life, festivals and celebrations of the Huaxi Miao and in rites of courtship, marriage and funeral and in religious observance, and it has strong practical value. In making cross-stitch, Huaxi Miao women not only attend to inheriting the artistic tradition of their people but are also good at exercising their imagination and boldly re-creating; almost no two works are exactly alike, which gives the cross-stitch strong artistry and originality. Artists and collectors hold it in high esteem, and museums in China and abroad have collected many examples. Miao tin embroidery in Jianhe County is distributed mainly in the townships of Nanzhai, Mindong and Guanmo within Jianhe County, Guizhou Province, and has been passed down for five or six hundred years. Miao tin embroidery uses dark-blue cotton cloth as its ground. First, cotton-spun thread is used to work counted-thread cross-stitch on the cloth in traditional patterns; then strips of metallic tin thread are stitched into the patterns; finally the gaps in the patterns are filled with colored flowers worked in black, red, blue and green silk thread. Silver-white tin thread embroidered on dark-blue cloth gives a sharp contrast, bright and dazzling, with good luster and a strong sense of texture, so that the cloth looks much like silver; matched with silver hats, silver earrings, silver neck rings, silver chains and silver bracelets, it is extremely splendid and noble. Tin embroidery has a unique craft, fine handwork, clear patterns, complex workmanship and unusual materials, and it has very high value for appreciation and collection. What distinguishes Miao tin embroidery from the embroidery of other peoples is that it is worked not with silk thread but with strips of metallic tin thread over counted-thread cross-stitch patterns on dark-blue cotton cloth; its core pattern is like a labyrinth, unpredictable and thought-provoking, with profound implications and a strong air of mystery. However, as people's aesthetic ideas and tastes continually change, the market for ethnic costume is shrinking, and fewer and fewer young Miao wear their own people's dress. Under these circumstances the number of Miao embroidery artisans is declining day by day; it can be said that the more developed modern culture becomes, the faster the traditional skills of Miao embroidery are lost. Faced with the crisis befalling Miao embroidery technique, measures should be taken as quickly as possible to ensure that this ancient ethnic craft is successfully passed on.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

According to historical records, the Jiuli tribe of Miao ancestors originally lived in the Yellow River valley; defeated repeatedly in wars with other peoples, they gradually migrated west, and some branches entered what is now Guizhou. One branch, which called itself "Mou" (called "Hua Miao", or flowered Miao, by other peoples), settled at Gelogesang (present-day Guiyang).

Other submitting regions for the same item: Miaoxiu · Miaoxiu · Miaoxiu · Miaoxiu · Miaoxiu · Miaoxiu.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Zhang Guiying (record in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, Miao ethnicity, born in May 1971, from Leishan County, Guizhou Province. She grew up in a Miao village and from childhood liked Miao dress and embroidered clothing, loving the beautiful patterns and designs on the costume; from an early age she learned embroidery from her mother and eldest sister, and at fifteen had mastered the skill of embroidering complete sets of Miao festive and everyday dress. Her embroidered pieces are full of ethnic character, exquisite and beautiful, and are much loved by the local people. In 2012 she founded the Leishan Yongle Miao Dressmaking and Embroidery Technique Teaching Workshop, where she teaches Leishan Miao embroidery and trains successors for the transmission of traditional Miao craft. Representative inheritor of Miao Embroidery (Leishan Miao Embroidery), a fifth-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Wu Tongying 04-1773
• Zhang Guiying 05-2600
• Wang Qiping 05-2601
• Yang Meiyan 05-2602
• Longnvsanjiu 05-2603
• Wu Yingji
• Liu Zhongchang
• Wang Jinhua
• Shi Liping

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Miaoxiu (Leishan, Guizhou) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Zhang Guiying · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗