Tiaohua
01 · Historical Records
Common patterns and motifs include more than sixty kinds, such as two phoenixes facing the sun, dragon and phoenix bringing auspiciousness, carp leaping over the dragon gate, pomegranate blossoms, yang-ball flowers, peonies, maple leaves, bees gathering nectar and butterflies playing among flowers. All are stitched with blue or dark blue thread, producing clear lines and a most refined elegance. The history of Luxi Miao cross-stitch embroidery runs parallel with the Miao tradition of "thread counting." Local Miao women spin and weave their own "homespun cloth"; the cotton yarn used is relatively coarse, and the woven cloth has distinct horizontal and vertical threads with clear warp and weft, making it the best material for the cross-stitch technique. Cross-stitch work is used mostly on headscarves, and also on waist aprons, sleeves and baby-carrying wraps; the patterns all exist in the minds of the Miao women — there are no ready-made designs.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Miao cross-stitch embroidery, commonly known as "thread counting," is practiced most excellently in the Luxi Miao area of the Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Xiangxi, Hunan Province, and is distributed mainly in Liangjiatan, Bashaping, Pushi and Tanxi, as well as the surrounding townships. Cross-stitch embroidery in Luxi is used mostly on headscarves, stitched on cloth that local Miao women spin and weave themselves as "homespun cloth." The cotton yarn used in the homespun cloth is relatively coarse, and the woven cloth has distinct horizontal and vertical threads with clear warp and weft, making it the best material for the cross-stitch technique. Unlike embroidery, cross-stitching places all its patterns and motifs on the surface of the cloth. When making a piece, the first stitch is placed at the center of the pattern; after counting three threads, the next stitch is placed, and then again after counting three threads, until the pattern is fully revealed. The final stitch of a cross-stitch piece usually returns to the center of the pattern (that is, the place where stitching began). The cross-stitch process is extremely meticulous and strict: in the stitch-by-stitch counting, not a single thread may be miscounted; if one thread is miscounted, all the thread counts that follow will be wrong, and the pattern will become distorted. There are no ready-made designs in cross-stitch work; all patterns and motifs exist in the minds of the Miao women.
Homespun cloth and head-wraps
Miao cross-stitch, called counting the yarn, is finest in Luxi, where it is worked chiefly on head-wraps using cloth the women themselves spin and weave.
Counting three threads to a stitch
Work begins at the centre of the motif and proceeds three threads to a stitch until the pattern is complete, the final stitch usually returning to the starting centre.
One miscounted thread distorts the whole
The process is exacting: a single miscounted thread throws off every count that follows and distorts the entire pattern.
Twin phoenixes, dragon-phoenix and bees among flowers
Over sixty motifs are common—twin phoenixes facing the sun, dragon and phoenix, carp leaping the dragon gate, pomegranate, peony, maple leaf, bees among flowers and butterflies—all in blue or black thread for a clear, elegant line.
Yang Chunying and over a hundred motifs
Family-taught from childhood, Yang Chunying renewed pattern combinations, brought five-colour threads into picking and collected or created over a hundred Miao motifs.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Miao women in the local area practice cross-stitch skills from childhood alongside their elders, starting with individual patterns, and by the time they grow up they have become highly proficient.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tiaohua · Tiaohua · Tiaohua · Tiaohua · Tiaohua.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Yang Chunying (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, Miao ethnicity, born in July 1950, a native of Luxi County, Hunan Province. She inherited the craft through her family from childhood. On the basis of inheriting the traditional techniques of Miao cross-stitch embroidery, she has innovated in pattern combinations, applied five-colored threads to cross-stitch patterns, paid attention to the fashionable character of decorative applications, and enriched the expressive effect of cross-stitch patterns. She has attached importance to the study of Miao cross-stitch designs, collecting, organizing and creating more than one hundred Miao cross-stitch patterns. Representative works include Dragon-and-Phoenix Floral Cross-stitch Handkerchief and Miao Thread-Counting Interior Hanging. She has emphasized the transmission of the craft, passing on the Miao cross-stitch technique to her three daughters and her apprentices. She is a representative inheritor of cross-stitch embroidery (Miao cross-stitch embroidery), an item of national-level intangible cultural heritage of the fifth batch. Her works have been exhibited many times at home and abroad and have won awards.
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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