Tiaohua
01 · Historical Records
It is said to have originated in the Tang and Song periods and to have matured in the late Ming and early Qing. Therefore, since the early 1990s fewer and fewer young people in Huangmei have been able to do cross-stitch embroidery, and this distinctive craft is on the verge of being lost and urgently needs rescue. Huayao cross-stitch embroidery is said to have originated in the Han dynasty and matured in the Ming and Qing periods. In 1994, Huayao cross-stitch embroidery won the bronze prize at the 'Grand Exhibition of Unique Chinese Folk Arts' held by the Ministry of Culture, and in 2003 it won the gold prize at the 'First Chinese Exhibition of Cultural Relic Replicas and Folk Craftworks'; for this reason, Huxingshan Yao Ethnic Township of Longhui County was named a 'Township of Culture and Art' by the Hunan Provincial Department of Culture.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Tiaohua (cross-stitch embroidery) is a highly decorative embroidery craft. The cross-stitch embroidery practiced in Huangmei County, Hubei, and in Longhui County, Hunan, each has its own distinctive features. Huangmei cross-stitch embroidery, also known as 'frame flower' (jiazihua) or 'cross-stitch' (shizi tiaohua), is widely practiced in Huangmei County, Hubei. Over a long period, generation after generation of farm women refined the craft through painstaking work, and it gradually reached perfection; with bright color combinations and ingeniously conceived patterns, it displays a unique artistic expressiveness. Many Chinese folk-craft research experts call Huangmei cross-stitch embroidery 'color cross-stitch' (caitiao). The craft is most flourishing in places such as Caishan, Xinkai, and Konglong; girls begin to do needlework with their mothers or aunts as soon as they can understand anything, and continue until they are married. Huangmei cross-stitch embroidery differs from ordinary embroidery: ordinary embroidery emphasizes the stab of the needle, whereas cross-stitch emphasizes the pick. Huangmei cross-stitch embroidery uses yuanqing (dark indigo) cloth as its ground; with a needle, the embroiderer picks five-colored silk threads across the grid formed by the interlacing warp and weft of the ground cloth, producing patterns of brilliant color and strong three-dimensional effect. Stitches in the shape of an 'X' are called 'cross-stitch' (shizi xiu), and stitches in the shape of a horizontal line are called 'flat-line stitch' (pingxian xiu). The earliest works were mainly headscarves, garment edgings, door curtains, bed-canopy valances, and bed surrounds, which folk women used to adorn themselves and decorate their homes. The main material of Huangmei cross-stitch embroidery is the locally woven home-loom cloth (jiajibu), also called 'big cloth' (dabu); dyed blue as a ground, it is worked with a single needle and a single thread (in seven colors), with which the artisan alternately picks and embroiders various patterns. Products are mainly quilt covers, bedsheets, door valances, square kerchiefs, waist aprons, garments, shoe-pad insoles, and pillows, of which the square kerchiefs are the most outstanding; they have won gold prizes at international expositions on several occasions and have had a wide influence. Cross-stitch embroidery is purely handwork: embroidering a single pattern takes at least three to five days and at most a month, yet it often brings no commensurate reward. Huayao cross-stitch embroidery is a distinctive handicraft practiced among Yao women in Longhui County, Hunan; the Longhui Yao are called 'Huayao' ('Flowery Yao') because the women's barrel skirts (tongqun) are decorated with brilliant cross-stitch embroidery. The materials are indigo-blue or white homespun cloth and colored silk yarns. The women use no drawn patterns or molds, picking the stitches freehand along the warp and weft of the cloth; they mostly employ a filled-style technique in which patterns are set within patterns. The patterns draw on a wide range of subjects, numbering more than a thousand kinds, falling broadly into four major categories — animals, plants, history, and customs of daily life — with animal patterns the most common. The designs are ingeniously conceived, the forms boldly exaggerated, the layout balanced and symmetrical, the colors a stark contrast of black and white, giving a strong visual impact. The renowned Chinese expert on cultural relics and museums, Mr. Shen Congwen, called it 'the world's finest cross-stitch embroidery'. As social change deepened and living environments altered, ethnic dress was steadily assimilated by outside influences; during this period many veteran cross-stitch artisans passed away, the transmission of the craft was broken, and at the same time cross-stitch materials became scarce, leaving production in difficulty.
Cross stitch and flat-line stitch
Huangmei work differs from ordinary embroidery in picking rather than piercing: on indigo cloth, cross-shaped stitches form cross stitch and straight ones flat-line stitch.
Indigo-dyed home-woven cloth
Its chief material is locally woven cloth, known as dabu, dyed indigo; with a single needle and seven-coloured thread the maker alternates motifs in bright, ingenious combinations.
Square kerchiefs and Phoenix Chasing Phoenix
Products include quilt covers, sheets, door valances, kerchiefs, aprons and pillows, the kerchief the finest; the bearer Shi Jiumei's works include Phoenix Chasing Phoenix and Happiness as Boundless as the Eastern Sea.
The Caishan, Xinkai and Konglong heartland
Picking flourished most at Caishan, Xinkai and Konglong, where girls began needlework as soon as they could understand and continued until marriage; a proverb says every Huangmei girl picks flowers.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In the hundred-li cotton-growing countryside of Huangmei, the colored cross-stitch embroidery is even more exquisite, the patterns rich and varied, and the local character pronounced. A local proverb says: 'In Huangmei, every girl can do cross-stitch.' Local people call a girl who cannot do cross-stitch a 'zheng bazhang' ('whole palm'), which is a humiliation for her. The Huayao live in Huxingshan Yao Ethnic Township, Xiaoshajiang Town, Dashuitian Township, and Matangshan Township in northern Longhui, at elevations above 1,300 meters, and number more than seven thousand people.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tiaohua · Tiaohua · Tiaohua · Tiaohua · Tiaohua.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Huayao cross-stitch garments are collected as treasures by the National Art Museum of China and the Nationalities Museum. Huayao cross-stitch embroidery is declining day by day and has reached an endangered state; it urgently needs protection and rescue. Shi Jiumei (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Female, Han, born 1951, from Huangmei, Hubei. Her cross-stitch products cover all kinds of everyday articles, such as quilt covers, tablecloths, and curtains; her patterns number as many as 44 kinds, including plants, animals, and figures from traditional opera. Today she continues to collect all kinds of traditional cross-stitch patterns and pursues innovation. Her representative works include 'Phoenix Chasing Phoenix', 'Blessings as Deep as the Eastern Sea', 'Quilt Cover: Lotus Heart', and 'Quilt Cover: Twin Phoenixes Facing the Sun'. Representative inheritor of Cross-Stitch Embroidery (Huangmei Cross-Stitch), an intangible cultural heritage project of the first national-level batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Shi Jiumei 01-0085
- Fengxuemei 01-0086
- Wang Shifu 05-2604
- Yang Chunying 05-2605
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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