Tiaohua
01 · Historical Records
The cross-stitch embroidery craft popular in Wangjiang County, Anhui Province, developed and was transformed from sacrificial offerings in an agricultural society where fishing and farming coexisted. It originated in the Tang Dynasty; in the earliest times people used hair and hemp cloth as materials to stitch ritual cloths for worshipping the gods, and it gradually developed into an embellishment for everyday household items. Since the 1960s, Wangjiang cross-stitch embroidery has become widely renowned, with a large number of works collected by professionals in the field. In the late 1970s, works of Wangjiang cross-stitch embroidery were three times selected as sofa decorations for the Anhui Hall of the Great Hall of the People, and also won awards at expositions and trade fairs.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
In its early days, Wangjiang cross-stitch embroidery was used mainly to decorate women's headscarves, jackets, trousers and aprons, as well as infants' swaddling clothes, bibs, baby-carrying wraps, shoes and hats. Its range of application gradually expanded to include men's handkerchiefs, belts, carriage braids and cloth pouches, as well as interior furnishings such as bed valances and table covers. Today, Wangjiang cross-stitch embroidery has become an important component of contemporary household goods such as sofa cushions, armrests, curtains, wall hangings and carpets. Wangjiang cross-stitch embroidery is characterized by its distinctive stitching methods, fine workmanship, high technical content, and difficulty of imitation or reproduction. Wangjiang cross-stitch embroidery uses a distinctive stitching method: threads are counted against the warp and weft of the homespun cloth, and both the front and the back of a single work form patterns that echo and complement one another. The color scheme is predominantly dark blue alternating with white — either dark blue cloth with white thread or white cloth with dark blue thread — giving a plain, elegant appearance with a strong rustic flavor.
From vow sashes and sacrificial offerings
Wangjiang cross-stitch grew out of sacrificial offerings in a fishing-and-farming society: from the Tang dynasty people picked vow sashes for the gods in hair and hemp, later turning to household ornament.
From sweat towels and belts to sofa cushions
It began on women's headscarves, garments, aprons and infants' wraps, extended to men's sweat towels, belts and bags and to bed valances and table drapes, and now includes sofa cushions, curtains, wall hangings and carpets.
Sofa decoration in the Great Hall's Anhui Hall
Since the 1960s Wangjiang cross-stitch has been widely collected; in the later 1970s its work was three times chosen to decorate sofas in the Anhui Hall of the Great Hall of the People and won exhibition prizes.
Wang Shifu and the recovery of the old stitches
Assigned to the Wangjiang cultural office in 1979, Wang Shifu collected, studied and fully recovered the traditional stitches and trained a team of nearly a hundred pickers.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Wangjiang cross-stitch embroidery is distributed over a small area and has been little influenced by outside cultures; it has always maintained a plain, elegant appearance with a strong rustic flavor, providing vivid material for the study of regional culture in southwestern Anhui.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tiaohua · Tiaohua · Tiaohua · Tiaohua · Tiaohua.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Its compositions are graceful and well ordered, its color contrasts strong, and the front and back of each piece echo one another, making it of great ornamental value. At present the development of Wangjiang cross-stitch embroidery is in difficulties: the skilled stitchers trained before the 1950s who are still alive are all elderly, while local young women are eager to go out to work, and very few are willing to learn and inherit this excellent folk art. The future of Wangjiang cross-stitch embroidery is worrying, and it urgently needs protection. Wang Shifu (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in February 1954, a native of Wangjiang County, Anhui Province. He graduated in 1978 from the mass fine arts class of Anhui Art School (now Anhui Vocational College of the Arts), and in 1979 was assigned to work in the culture section of the Wangjiang County Bureau of Education and Culture, where he first came into contact with Wangjiang cross-stitch embroidery. He has long collected, organized, studied and researched Wangjiang cross-stitch embroidery, and has restored and fully mastered its traditional stitching methods. His works are rooted in tradition while integrating modern elements; the colors mostly alternate between dark blue and white, and the patterns are intriguing on both sides with rich symbolic meanings. He assisted in establishing the Wangjiang County Huilong Cross-stitch Crafts Co., Ltd., undertaking product development and design work and organizing production. He is a representative inheritor of cross-stitch embroidery (Wangjiang cross-stitch embroidery), an item of national-level intangible cultural heritage of the fifth batch. He has taught the craft for many years, building up a cross-stitch team of nearly one hundred people.
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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