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.
Huayao tube skirts and 'first-rate flower picking'
Huayao cross-stitch is a distinctive craft of Yao women in Longhui, who are called Huayao for the brilliant picking on their tube skirts; the scholar Shen Congwen called it first-rate in the world.
Freehand picking and filling inside filling
Working on indigo or white homespun with coloured silk and yarn, the maker follows the warp and weft by hand with no drawing or mould, often filling one motif inside another.
Animals, plants, history and custom
Its motifs number over a thousand in four groups—animals, plants, history and custom—most often animals, boldly shaped, symmetrically arranged and starkly black and white.
Feng Xuemei and Soft-shelled Turtle Bringing Auspice
Feng Xuemei works on coarse homespun with white yarn, refining head-wraps, leggings and belts; her mainly animal motifs set black and white centres within rings of seven-colour 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. Feng Xuemei (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Female, Yao, born 1959, from Longhui, Hunan. While preserving the traditional Huayao cross-stitch style, she improved certain flawed items of cross-stitch dress, such as head wraps, leg wraps, and waistbands. Her cross-stitch works are mostly animal patterns, with patterns set within patterns, balanced and symmetrical. The color contrasts are strong: the main pattern is in black and white, surrounded by colorful flowers picked in seven-color silk threads. Feng Xuemei's cross-stitch uses plain coarse homespun cloth as its ground, picked in white yarn; it requires no drawn designs or embroidery frames — she has a ready plan in her mind — and shows a distinct regional and ethnic character. She teaches the cross-stitch craft patiently and meticulously; many of her fellow Yao mountain women who studied under her have become skilled cross-stitch workers. Her representative works include 'A Soft-Shelled Turtle Brings Auspiciousness', 'A Swan Spreads Its Wings', and 'A Goshawk Seizes Its Prey'. Representative inheritor of Cross-Stitch Embroidery (Huayao 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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